Cork tech expert issues warning on use of AI for therapy – echo live

In a recent survey, 52% of young adults in the United States say they would feel comfortable discussing their mental health with an AI chatbot.
A Cork professor has warned about the dangers of people turning to AI chatbots instead of professional therapists for mental health support.
Gregory Provan is a professor of computer and information technology at University College Cork.
His comments come as a growing number of people are using AI chatbots for mental health therapy.
In a recent survey, 52% of young adults in the United States say they would feel comfortable discussing their mental health with an AI chatbot.
The makers of ChatGPT are changing the way it responds to users who show mental and emotional distress after legal action from the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine from California, who took his own life after months of conversations with a chatbot.
Open AI admitted its systems could “fall short” and said it plans to install “stronger guardrails around sensitive content and risky behaviors” for users under the age of 18.
Mr Provan told The Echo that the involvement of AI apps in areas such as mental health is a very delicate issue in particular, based on his research into the area of information technology.
“The moment the tasks become more challenging, the large language models tend to make errors. This is for programming, where there are known correct and incorrect solutions.
“If you then extend this to something as complicated as medicine, I would have really major issues. Doctors make very subtle choices. So, when you get back test results, they depend on knowing the patient in front of them.

“Mental health is even more complicated. I would never go near recommending this.
“Over the summer I used a language model to help me plan a trip to the UK. It made some serious errors, it said in one case it would take me two and a half hours to do a drive, when in reality it was closer to four hours.
“For these kinds of simple things, you can recover from these errors. But if it is similarly making errors with mental health advice it could be very dangerous.” 
As to what AI companies such as Chat GPT could do help improve people who use chat bots for looking after their mental health, Mr Provan added:
“I think it is how we as individuals are using them. If you have appropriate scepticism and view them as potential sources of information which could be incorrect, then I think that situation is ok.
“But if you have the view that the information they provide is guaranteed to be correct or if you develop an over reliance on them, I think that is an incorrect usage.
“If there is anything which you think is serious, either with health or mental health, you have to present to the proper health expert or mental health expert.
“Clearly these companies have these language models as products that can be used in lots of different ways. We just have to be very careful in how we use them.
“Doctors, if they don’t become overly reliant on these tools, I think it is fine.” 
Aoife Griffin, a services manager with Childline, said that based on their experience and callers, more young people and children are using Chat GBT for mental health advice.
“There can be good advice there in terms of techniques to help them in the moment say if they are having a panic attack.
“But for a form of therapy, our advice would be to go to a mental health professional that you know is qualified, has the proper education and the proper experience to work with you therapeutically.
“I think that therapy has to be quite nuanced and it has to know the background of the person. It has to be delivered in a safe environment and turning to chat GBT for that kind of intervention is really not a good idea.”
Ms Griffin added that although the likes of Chat GPT can be useful with regards to general mental health advice, it is not sufficient she feels in terms of being patient specific or working on a case-by-case basis.
“They are not going to know you, the therapeutic relationship isn’t going to be there. You are going to miss things like tone, body language and someone’s general demeanor.
“Chat GPT, they are not going to know the person or know their history. It won’t be able to differentiate for a person what is mild distress or a person in a crisis.
“It is a really growing concern for us and anyone working with children or young people.” 
Ms Griffin continues: “It is about ensuring that these platforms. We understand that we are all using the internet and there is a place for it for sure. But it is as safe as possible.
“We have to be very careful I think when it comes to children and young people accessing Chat GPT and using it for support, compared to something like Childline where you have volunteers who are trained, and it is a listening service you will always find. 
“Or the proper channels like your GP or whoever in terms of getting support.” 
Liam Quaide, Social Democrats TD for Cork East, who also has experience working as a clinical psychologist, working for many years with community adult mental health teams and more recently in hospital outpatient services, said:
“The essence of therapy is a deep human engagement. As one famous psychoanalyst Neville Symington said, “the core of one person meeting the core of another”.
“AI therapy, by its nature, is superficial, robotic and vapid. The depth of a therapeutic relationship should not be reduced to algorithms or comfort scripts generated by machines.
“Real therapy is rooted in trust, presence and the capacity to confront uncomfortable truths with another person.
“AI promises instant validation and efficiency. But it risks leaving people lonelier, more detached, and less able to navigate the complexity of their struggles.”
A paper published in 2024 in the Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health (by Olawade et al,) found that although AI holds the potential to revolutionise mental healthcare, responsible and ethical implementation is essential.

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