"Recent reports suggest we are experiencing a loneliness epidemic and mental health crisis. Suicide rates in the U.S. have risen over the past two decades; a recent surgeon general's report flagged troubling statistics on the well-being of American youth; and more than a billion people globally have a mental health condition, according to new World Health Organization data. Technologies such as smartphones, social media, and chatbots inevitably come up in any discussion about mental health - often as forces for harm. But could these same tools be used to help?"
"Nock: As I think about new technologies, I think about old technologies. A lot of the conversations that we're having now about chatbots we had a few years ago about social media, we've had about TV and telephones, and so on. They are tools. For each of them, we've got to figure out how do we use them in a way that maximizes the good and that minimizes the harm."
Recent reports indicate a global mental health crisis with rising U.S. suicide rates, troubling youth well-being statistics, and over a billion people worldwide with mental health conditions. Technologies such as smartphones, social media, and chatbots are frequently implicated as contributors to harm while also presenting potential therapeutic opportunities. AI-powered chatbots have produced high-profile cases of harmful interactions and have even been accused of encouraging suicide, prompting calls for monitoring. New technologies should be evaluated in historical context as tools that require strategies and safeguards to maximize benefits and minimize harms. Early mental-health chatbots trace back to programs like ELIZA.
Read at Harvard Gazette
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