Will Artificial Intelligences Need Therapy and Why That Could Be a Good Thing

?Mental illness – preventing it, relieving the suffering associated with it, ensuring we reverse the growing trend of those with mental wellness challenges – is one of the most significant issues facing many societies right now.?

The American Psychiatric Association defines Mental Illnesses as “health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses can be associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.”

Yet – as much as I resist speculative futuring – what if there could be a way to use the parameters of “Mental Illness” in a technologically positive way?

In a great article by Cem Dilmejani When Will Singularity Happen? 995 Experts’ Opinions On AGI in AI Multiple (https://research.aimultiple.com/artificial-general-intelligence-singularity-timing/), September 26, 2022,?the most recent predictions from thinkers in the field for when we will achieve Sentient, Conscious Artificial Intelligence range from 2030 to 2050 (I tend towards the 2050 estimate).?

Whatever the case, this seems awfully close.

AI, especially among the public, is perceived as much of a threat as a beneficial technology.?In some equations, AI sentience equals an essential danger to our humanity and survival, a scenario where we become victims to and controlled by a digital monster.

And yet…hang on, here it comes…what if we built in a “Therapy Protocol” into AI’s from the onset? A sort of Freudian Failsafe Function?

A model could be this: as an AI perceives its actions and decisions, if they lead to increased dysfunctions in relation to humans they serve or generate among those humans’ signals of emotional distress (such as fear) the AI reorients itself via human interactions and adjustments. And it does this through the intermediation of a human.?

In other words, It hits the digital coach.

There are already affective facial recognition systems that have a better accuracy for detecting human emotional states than males (big surprise there huh?) and these could be used as a real time gauge of people’s negative responses.?

Once the prevalence of these reaches a certain threshold, the AI “enters therapy” through a kind of “Techno-Psychiatry”.?

Like so often happens in therapy…the AI can blame it parents for its woes.?

And guess what: we’re those parents.

Walter Di Mantova has been an advocate for the rights of those with Mental Health challenges for many years and is currently writing a book on the evolution of emotions into the future.

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