Could artificial intelligence really replace the psychologist?

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly present in our lives: it is useless to deny it and oppose what is a trend set to grow and evolve. It remains to be understood How Artificial Intelligence Technology Can Help People With Mental Health Disorders and, more generally, those in situations of psychological distress. The question is, in essence, whether artificial intelligence can (or will ever be able to) replace the psychologist and face-to-face therapy, but also how much artificial intelligence can be used by psychologists and therapists themselves to improve mental health care. We talked about it with Dr. Francesco Lauretta, psychologist and cognitive behavioral psychotherapistwho recently dedicated a long study, entitled Artificial Intelligence in Psychology and Psychiatryon the portal of Hypsico.

Artificial Intelligence in Psychology: The Current Situation

As Dr. Lauretta explains, «currently several chatbots are used (not so much in Italy, but in the United States) to carry out initial screenings or as initial support for individuals with mild psychological problems or life-related difficulties. In this case, chatbots are used to resume a sort of interviewtrying to guide the patient and identifying his problems on the basis of diagnostic manuals and pre-structured interviews. In case of disorders such as anxiety and mild depression Psychological support inputs can be provided without going through therapywhile where artificial intelligence detects the need for therapeutic work, can redirect the user to a professional suitable for his case. Speaking strictly of chatbots such as GPT chat, In the future, the implementation of these diagnostic functions will certainly take placethanks to increasingly sophisticated criteria and the ability to conduct increasingly precise interviews and, consequently, offer very timely and targeted advice and adaptive strategies».

The Limits of Artificial Intelligence in Psychology

Let’s move on to the limits of artificial intelligence as a tool for psychological therapy. «Systems like GBT chat they lack divergent thinking, understanding, social skills, and empathic ability and, obviously, human warmth”, underlines Dr. Lauretta. “By this I mean that if it is true that the screenings and diagnoses formulated by artificial intelligence are and will be increasingly precise, those nuances and that perception of the patient’s responses that It does not only include the verbal, but also the paraverbal component, attitudes, emotionsthe possible dissonances between what is said and how one behaves. It can certainly be predicted that chatbots will be soon to be integrated by other systems for emotion recognition and facial expression screeningbut this technological aspect poses another order of problems, that of people’s privacy, given that the user will have to give consent to the filming, effectively providing extremely sensitive data. Beyond this important knot to untie, I would like to reiterate that artificial intelligence can prove to be useful for giving advice and providing referral protocols to people with mild anxiety, stress and depression disordersa bit like classic self-help books have done up until now, urging people to implement actions and behavioral exercises that are useful for the person’s psycho-physical well-being and always making human-like support available. All this can prove to be an excellent starting tool to be used alongside classic therapy.not to mention that in cases of mild psychological disorders, it could already work on its own. But the chatbot will never be able to match the empathic understanding of the personnor create human interaction and support based on warmth and care, aspects that are fundamental in moments of great difficulty for the patient. Artificial intelligence used for psychological care also lacks divergent thinking, curiosity, and sincere interest.. In conclusion, at the moment it is not possible to think of a path of psychological support and 360-degree therapy and support entrusted only to artificial intelligence. The opportunities are many, but there are obvious limitations that should not be underestimated, concludes the expert.