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ABSTRACT
Chatbots and other artificial-intelligence applications that mimic human conversation or writing have rapidly become some of the most popular tech applications of all time. Expert analysis and media coverage of the risks and benefits of AI have paid scant attention to how chatbots might affect public health at a time when depression, suicide, anxiety, and mental illness are epidemic in the United States, particularly among children and young adults. Many experts have pointed to a correlation between declining mental health and increasing online engagement. Generative AI’s potential to transform education, the job market, and social interactions could come at the expense of humanity’s own mental faculties, creativity, and social skills. Chatbots—which are prone to errors and fabrications—could also make it more difficult for humans to tell fact from fiction. But to the extent that mental health experts and the healthcare industry are interested in AI, it’s mostly viewed as a promising tool for identifying and treating mental health issues, rather than a potential threat to mental health.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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Funding
Notes on contributors
Dawn Stover
Dawn Stover is a contributing editor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. She began her career at Harper’s magazine and worked for 20 years as an editor at Popular Science, then the world’s largest-circulation consumer science magazine. Her work has also appeared in Appalachia, Appalachian Voices, Backpacker, Columbia Insight, Conservation Magazine, Earth 3.0, Foreign Policy, High Country News, Indian Country Today, Indianz.com, Mind, Men’s Journal, MIT Technology Review, MSN.com, New Scientist, Outside, Science Digest, Science Illustrated, Scientific American, The Oregonian, The New York Times, and Underscore. She was an adjunct instructor in the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University for five years.