Before undertaking the exercise I thought explicitly about different sorts of meaningful AI-themed features. I thought it might be insightful to ask ChatGPT directly on what does it offer as an generative LLM. Chat have listed around fifteen answers, which included health and wellness functionality. Regarding health and wellness, I have thought about exploring the well-being functionalities of the AI language.
Now, before doing so, I have checked global statistics on the topic to understand current well-being situation from a global perspective. I have found out that around 5% of adults, globally, suffer from depression and more than 700 000 people die due to suicide every year as suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15–29-year-olds group (World Health Organization). The high significance of these statistics made me realize that communities might need more tools to fight the depression off. Most importantly, the low accessibility of mental health services might be the biggest issue as WHO noted that over 75 percent of people living in low-income or middle-income countries never got a treatment for depression due to treatment barriers (Koskie and Raypole).
Taking into account above, I wanted to see how ChatGPT perform with mental health questions and whether AI chatbots can somewhat substitute a doctor. For the purpose of the exercise, I have stated that `I am feeling a little bit down` and need some advice so I can cope a bit better. Chat provided me with 10 bullet-point list on what should I do – it would suggest to, for example, talk to somebody, practice self-care, eat healthy or do some exercise (screen 1). I have played with both AI tools for a brief time and have noted few observations.
My first thought was that, if I would be in a certain position, I would be unsure about which measure, that Chat has provided, should be applied first. Moreover, I felt these suggestions would not help me in any way as they did lack follow up questions on patient’s condition – Gillian felt somewhat the same (screen 2) (Vice). The next concern of mine was the safety aspect. If I would be sharing sensitive information with AI, I would be concerned with the privacy of entered data and the possible malinformation. I have found out that it has recently been pointed out that there are concerns about AI’s potential for data breaches and unauthorized access to personal information (The Economic Times). This made me think it’s actually right to question the safety aspect after all.
What do you think? Is it right to substitute a professional with AI at some level? May AI help to aid people when it comes to mental health? Is it safe to share information on your health with generative AI?
References:
World Health Organization. “Depressive Disorder (Depression).” World Health Organisation, 2023, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression.
Koskie, Brandi , and Crystal Raypole. “Depression Statistics: Types, Symptoms, Treatments & More.” Healthline, 14 Jan. 2022, www.healthline.com/health/depression/facts-statistics-infographic#prevalence.
Vice. “We Spoke to People Who Started Using ChatGPT as Their Therapist.” Www.vice.com, www.vice.com/en/article/z3mnve/we-spoke-to-people-who-started-using-chatgpt-as-their-therapist.
Screen 1
Screen 2
Great blog! In general I find that many professionals in different sectors could be replaced eventually by well-trained and developed AI. Yet, in the health sector, specifically the mental health sector, I am not so sure. Besides the safety issue, Gillian has said it exactly right, there are so many nuances to a therapy session an AI bot can not comply to. The tips ChatGPT are useful, but only as reminders after already learning those things in therapy. I believe that therapy gives you the handles to pick yourself back up when you need it, but therapy in general gives you so much more, such as support, a relief and clarity. ChatGPT might remind you to the handles, but could probably never offer the same nuances as a real therapist, at least in my opinion. Do you think an AI could eventually replace mental health professionals? Would you even want it to?