Artificial Life that can carry out simple and complex tasks has been created by humans
using Artificial Intelligence technology. AI is essentially a computer system made to complete
tasks that historically only humans could do, such as recognizing speech, reasoning, making
decisions, and solving problems. (Coursera, 2023). One form of AI that has emerged and is
widely being used is Mental Health Chatbots. Chatbots depend on NLP or “natural language
processing” as well as ML or machine learning, to interpret human conversations and provide
responses to human input. Some believe these are revolutionizing healthcare, while others,
including myself, are skeptical.
I am studying mental health therapy and am wildly passionate about the study of mental
health in people, what causes these mental health imbalances, and the best solutions for them.
With technology on the rise, social media platforms blowing up, and people being more
connected than ever, mental health issues are skyrocketing. The rapid rise of chatbots in
information and service provision by businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit groups has
inevitably touched the domain of mental health. Chatbots, however, do raise ethical problems
and concerns. (Digital Health, 2023). Mental health chatbots that offer therapy services have the
probability to help the general public, as well as make therapy more accessible to those who need
the care. However, chatbots raise several ethical concerns such as privacy, transparency,
accuracy, safety, and accountability. Since chatbots are computer-programmed and formulated I
don’t believe it to be safe for a person to confide deep emotional or personal information within
this form of technology. Since chatbots are computer-programmed they could be easily hacked,
and it takes one person to be able to hack this service and exploit someone's personal
information.
For a little background, the very first NLP computer program was designed and created
by a man named Joseph Weizenbaum, a German American computer scientist. Weizenbaum
created the first “chatterbox” named ELIZA, a stimulated therapist. Weizenbaum wanted to show
that communication between man and machine was superficial, later to found out his assistant
disclosed personal matters and formed a superficial relationship with ELIZA. This is what is now
known as the “ELIZA effect” which describes people's tendency to correlate human traits to
computers which we know they will lack. (Digital health, 2023)
Some concern regarding AI is that robots, or chatbots, are programmed to collect clinical
data, which if hacked can be stolen and used to compromise security. As well social networks
could gather and save information about a patient's mental health, which could be used against
the patient in business and marketing strategies. The primary concern is the safety of
confidentiality of patient's information, the emotional disconnect between the patient and the
robot, and the surveillance of the product.
For a biblical perspective, Colossians 2:8 states, “See to it that no one takes you captive
by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to elemental spirits of
the world, and not according to Christ.” (The ESV Study Bible, English standard version, 2008).
This bible verse is talking about using sound judgment and not being fooled or held captive by
elements or spirits of the world. To me, this looks like not looking to AI for answers but looking
within the scriptures for true guidance. As well Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, “let us make
man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over all creeping
thing that creeps on the earth.” (The ESV Study Bible, English standard version, 2008). God is
saying man is to have dominion. That is His purpose. We are under the Lord's guidance, and He
References
Coursera staff, (2023, Nov 29th) What Is Artificial Intelligence? Definition, Uses, and
Types , https://www.coursera.org/articles/what-is-artificial-intelligence
Simone Coghlan, (2023, June 22nd) To chat or bot to chat: Ethical issues with using
chatbots in mental health, DigitalHealth,
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20552076231183542
The ESV Study Bible: English standard version.%(2008). Crossway Bibles
With chatbots being programmed to a certain extent, they are still limited. This ensures that their
capabilities, responses, and depth of care are as well limited in the realm of mental health
therapy. The idea is that AI will continue to increase and begin replacing humans in job forces,
and begin making decisions that humans can’t understand or control Robots
can be programmed to
collect clinical data,
which may be stolen
and used for illicit ends
that compromise security
and privacy; without the
users’ permission,
