Calls for ban on AI therapy

Three Irish healthcare bodies have demanded an immediate ban on AI therapy.

The College of Psychiatrists Ireland, Psychological Society of Ireland, and the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy all said that legislation was “urgently needed to protect all in Ireland”.

They highlighted major concerns that they had with the practice.

AI therapy does not, they said, have the legal or ethical obligation to alert others of risk, and does not have the ability to do so. They said that those suffering from delusions or paranoia “may have their erroneous beliefs confirmed or elaborated upon by the AI ‘therapist’ which could lead to harm the themselves or others”.

They warned that a person using an AI ‘therapist’ is not trained to know what good process is and what it is not, which makes them vulnerable “at a time when they need genuine human connection”.

Replacing human therapy with AI therapy can deepen a dependency on artificial interaction and undermine opportunities to build real and valid relationships.

However, despite these issues, AI therapy can still be seen as an attractive option by many people.

Hugh Morley from Cork Counselling Services said that what can make them an attractive option is that they can often be easier to engage with than a human counsellor. “There’s a low risk of rejection,” he said. “They’re self-reinforcing, they’re designed to keep you coming back.

“Aside from that is the availability, it’s on demand, and it’s an instant gratification,” he said.

However, he cautioned that this kind of relationship, which focuses on telling the user what they want to hear to maintain engagement, is not good practice as counselling.

“We’re trying as counsellors to make ourselves redundant, whereas a computer algorithm will do the opposite, it will try and keep you engaged.

“A counsellor will lose their client and become redundant after the appropriate time, it’s not their aim to keep that client coming to them, and if it is, that's seen as exploitative.”

Ultimately, what is of critical importance in the patient-counsellor relationship, he said, is the human connection - that the other person can empathise with the patient’s experience.

“It’s called ‘compassion’, that’s the formal word, it means ‘suffering together’ literally. The look you get, the feel you get, that human connection, that empathy. I’ll be damned if I’ve gotten that yet from a laptop,” he said.