Can AI Solve the Mental Health Crisis? Exploring governance, explainability and trust
Name of applicant
Rasmus Birk
Title
Associate Professor
Institution
Aalborg University
Amount
DKK 4,995,000
Year
2023
Type of grant
Semper Ardens: Accelerate
What?
This project will study how artificial intelligence is becoming used to monitor, diagnose and provide therapy for mental health problems. Focusing on chatbots and digital phenotyping, we will study how AI for mental health problems is governed; if these technologies can be explainable; and how users come to trust them. The aim is to critically study the challenges of using AI for mental health.
Why?
For years, researchers and private companies have tried to use artificial intelligence to develop technologies that can help with people’s mental health problems. But developing AI for mental health problems involves complex ethical, social and technical questions. This necessitates the critical study of consequences of intervening on mental health problems through digital tools.
How?
We will conduct two qualitative, multi-sited case studies of governance, explainability and trust in the emerging field of digital mental health. Both case studies will focus on designers, researchers, and users of chatbots/digital phenotyping. We will also build a novel research group and an international research network for the critical study of AI and digital mental health.