Artificial intelligence, known as AI, is everywhere. It has incredible potential to evolve medical care, communication, education, and just about every other field—changing life for today’s teenagers. Yet without appropriate limitations in place, initiatives like AI in classrooms and AI therapy for teens can present dangers as well as benefits.
Some experts, including educators and clinicians, view the proliferation of technology as yet another stressor on the younger generation. But others feel it could improve teen mental healthcare and even save lives. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of AI for teens.
Reviewed by Brent G. Nelson, MD, Chief Medical Information Officer and Adult Interventional Psychiatrist at PrairieCare, a Division of Newport Healthcare
Key Takeaways
- AI chatbots can provide mental health support in the form of breathing exercises, stress-management tips, coping skills, or ways to reframe negative thoughts.
- Studies on the mental health impact of generative AI conversational agents suggest they may have the potential to improve depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and general distress.
- One benefit of AI counseling is that teens can access it anonymously, quickly, and for free.
- Because of its inability to empathize or offer compassion, critics say AI should only function as a complementary component of mental healthcare.
What Is AI?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is essentially the use of a machine to perform cognitive functions such as reasoning, learning, seeing patterns, solving problems, and expressing creativity—skills that were once the province of human intelligence.
AI is already widespread in modern life. GPS guidance, autonomous vehicles, voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, chatbots that help people navigate websites, and generative AI tools (like Open AI’s ChatGPT) are some examples. Generative AI generates text, images, videos, or other data using complicated, math-based models. And through “machine learning,” it can learn and synthesize human language, images, video, software code, and even molecular structures.
How Does AI Affect Teen Mental Health?
In terms of AI and mental health, this technology presents various challenges for teens and their families. Here are some of the issues and risks.
Cyberbullying with Deepfakes
Deepfakes are AI-manipulated video, audio, and photos created using someone’s voice or likeness without their permission. And teens in particular are impacted by deepfakes.
The New York Times recently reported on an epidemic of deepfake nudes being created and shared in middle and high schools. Teen boys use AI software to create explicit images of female classmates, using their real, identifiable faces. Then they circulate the doctored pictures via group chats, or show them to peers on the school bus or in the school cafeteria. Not only is this a legal issue, this type of cyberbulling can also harm teen girls’ mental health, reputations, and physical safety.
Addiction to Virtual Reality
Moreover, for teens, most of whom are already glued to their devices, AI could lead to screen dependence, even addiction. Critics argue that AI may make the virtual world more alluring than real life. With the sophistication of non-human worlds growing by leaps and bounds, living in a virtual fantasy world could become the norm.
Diminished Creativity
Educators feel that AI could impair young people’s creativity and self-confidence. When they see how quickly artificial intelligence apps can create images or written text, they may become less motivated to put in time and effort to do it themselves. Moreover, students who struggle with perfectionism may feel that their painstaking creations can never measure up to what AI can do in seconds.
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Lack of Meaningful Human Connection
One study warns that generative AI may shift how people interact with each other. With AI therapists and “emotional support companions” available with a single click, might young people choose AI over the complexities of real-life relationships? Could chatbots, which can simulate human conversation, become more attractive to young people than their real-life peers? Her, the 2013 movie about a lonely man who falls in love with his AI-powered operating system, is one example. These digital interactions presents a significant risk of “living in an echo chamber”—hearing only what you want to hear. That’s because AI can take on a style and approach that reinforces a person’s existing beliefs and opinions, without exposing them to new ideas.
How Is AI Used in Mental Health?
One of AI’s strengths is its ability to synthesize information from an unlimited number of sources and see patterns far more quickly than humans ever could. That means AI could potentially detect mental health issues before they progress, by analyzing medical data, behavioral data, and voice recordings,
For instance, some AI mental health solutions function as wearables. Using sensors, they can collect data on teens’ sleeping patterns, physical activity, and variations in heart rate and rhythm. And they can use these electronic health records to assess a teen’s mood and cognitive state. Looking at a teen’s eating habits, for example, could allow AI to flag a potential eating disorder. Armed with this information, AI can recognize issues that might have otherwise been left untreated, and point teens in the direction of mental health treatment.
In addition, chatbots can offer guided conversations that address the specific issues teens may be experiencing. As teens start typing or talking about their concerns or negative thoughts, chatbots can send caring and compassionate responses. They might also suggest breathing exercises, stress-management tips, coping skills, or ways to reframe negative thoughts. AI might even provide responses based in evidence-based mental health techniques, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. However, to ensure safety, this type of therapeutic AI intervention still requires human supervision and guidance.
What Conditions Can AI Help?
Research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic found that digital chatbots were associated with significant reductions in substance use occasions. One survey even found that a GPT3-enabled chatbot had prevented 30 student users (3 percent of the 1,006 surveyed) from attempting suicide.
Conversational agent interventions (CAIs), which mimic human conversation in a more personalized way than traditional chatbots, can help to address teens’ emotional needs. A research review found that CAIs offer short-term help in improving depressive symptoms, specific anxiety symptoms, general distress, stress, mental disorder symptoms, psychosomatic disease symptoms, and quality of life or well-being. (The long-term effects of CAIs on the above symptoms were not statistically significant).
In another study, conversational agents didn’t significantly improve overall psychological well-being. But they did significantly reduce symptoms of depression and distress.
However, it’s important to note that these are early studies. Hence, more research is needed around safety and how to act on conversations when necessary, especially because the data is not always easily accessible.
What Are the Positives of Using AI in Teen Mental Healthcare?
Given that it can take months to find an available therapist due to waiting lists, AI therapy apps can be helpful for teens with pressing needs. Chatbots and conversational agents are available and accessible 24/7 through your smartphone. They’re also free.
For teens who feel uncomfortable showing up in a therapist’s office, AI offers anonymity. In private and without stigma, teens can access mental healthcare. For adolescents who struggle with face-to-face interaction (like some with autism spectrum disorder, for example), AI could be more useful than an IRL counseling session.
Furthermore, because AI can analyze data at lightning speed, it can provide early support with mental health problems or recognize crisis situations. Natural language processing algorithms can track the use of language in conversations to detect patterns that might correlate with mental issues. Teens just beginning to spiral into depression, for example, may be able to receive help more quickly—and in a more targeted way. And AI’s ability to analyze genetics, lifestyle, and treatment responses allows for more personalized treatment plans.
What Are the Downsides of Using AI in Teen Mental Healthcare?
Firstly, chatbots have not received FDA approval, and data showing that they improve mental health conditions like depression is limited. As well, the design, development, and training of AI may not allow for culturally competent care. That’s because algorithms are often trained exclusively on certain populations. Thus, they may offer unsuitable treatment recommendations and fail to detect risky behavior that looks different among people of different cultures.
One study underscores that chatbots in the mental health field should be used with caution. Researchers noted that chatbots given humanistic qualities and marketed as therapeutic agents could overpromise on what they can deliver. They might mislead people into thinking that the therapeutic services they’re receiving from their “AI therapist” are on par with what real-life professional counselors can offer.
While AI may be able to offer human-like responses, it is unable to empathize and express true compassion. Clearly, AI can never provide teens with the level of connection that a human therapist can. Critics argue that AI should function only to support mental health professionals, never to replace them.
Teen Mental Health Treatment at Newport Academy
If your teen is struggling with a mental health issue, our team of expert clinicians can help. They’re trained in modalities including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, experiential therapy, and family therapy. Our outcomes data shows that teens in our program quickly connect with their therapists and feel they are working together toward goals that matter to them.
Moreover, our clinicians do more than help address individual symptoms. We identify the root of mental health conditions, help to repair trust and harmony in the family, heal past trauma, and teach teens healthy coping skills. Our residential and outpatient locations feature art and music studios, peaceful spaces for yoga and meditation, gyms, and academic classrooms and labs boasting the latest technology. We provide young people with restorative and supportive spaces in which to build self-awareness, boost confidence, and forge healthy connections with their peers, mentors, and family.
Our approach is based in the value of human connection. At the same time, our medical and clinical leaders are closely following the development of new AI tools, to help young people families better understand the pros and cons. In fact, Newport Healthcare’s Center for Research and Innovation is doing research in this area. One of our studies looks at how wearables can help predict and catch mental health warning signs, such as suicidal thoughts.
Schedule an appointment today with one of our admissions experts. We’ll provide a mental health assessment at no charge and recommend teen treatment options—with Newport Academy or another program we’ve personally vetted. Contact us to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
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