How Therapists Feel About AI Taking Their Jobs

Americans are turning to artificial intelligence tools for mental health advice and therapists are divided.

An American Psychological Association (APA) survey released June 16 found that 39% of psychologists have had conversations with patients who used AI to self-diagnose. About one-third of respondents said their patients are relying on AI for help with self-discipline, affirmations or behavioral reminders, while 33% said they were using the technology to assist with their treatment, the poll found.

Analysts warned the Daily Caller News Foundation that while using AI for mental health advice is affordable and allows users easy access to information, it can also lead to issues like providing patients biased data.

“AI is cheap, knowledgeable, personalized, engaging and saw faster adoption than any other technology in human history,” Cato Institute Research Fellow Adam Omary told the DCNF. “It is not surprising that people are drawn to AI for mental health advice, both because of its ability to distill complex research and expert guidelines as it does with medicine, and for companionship.”

Omary noted AI can “incorporate the best available psychology research, be personalized precisely to a user’s preferences, and have superhuman familiarity with practically any topic or cultural context.”

He suggested AI may “also be biased by its training data, meaning it is necessary to be selective about what information it is trained on, because even much of psychology research has proven unreplicable.”

“In-person therapy is not going anywhere … Even if AI therapy were poorer quality, its low cost and wide accessibility would make it potentially beneficial and additive to the existing mental health care industry,” Omary continued.