AI, Ethics, and Mental Health: What Clinicians Are Thinking About with Dr. Colleen Byrne

In this episode, I'm joined by my good friend and mentor, Dr Colleen Byrne. She's a professor over at University of Maryland College Park, and she specializes in ethics, in psychology. She's the person I go to, and I've gone to for years with any kind of ethical question. We're talking openly about AI & ethics to help explore this emerging technology and how people can use it thoughtfully and intentionally for mental health needs—without giving away your agency, or connection to your own self trust and inner voice.

In this conversation, we discuss: 

• Ethical standards & how they are established 

• Emerging ethical considerations for psychologists & AI

• The over-validation of LLMs, and the dangers that presents to mental health

• The limitations of validation & synthesis of AI chat bots for care 

• Judgment calls of psychologists vs. predetermined values of an AI algorithm 

• AI synthesizing a modality vs. experiencing that modality in therapy 

• What gives us hope about AI in the future 

Colleen Byrne: I totally understand why people will turn to something like ChatGPT if they don't have a therapist. It's extremely economical. It gives you so much information too, so much information. But what's left out is that there's nobody giving that information that has your best interest in mind.

Listen to the full conversation on the Inner Calling Podcast here. 

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