Responsible AI in Mental Health
Embracing Technology is the most effective way to influence it.
By aligning AI innovation with our clients’ actual needs, we ensure every technological leap is a step forward toward progress, not distraction.
We are on the cusp of a new technological wave that is bound to influence how we consume technology and interact with it across all aspect of our lives! It is akin to the transformative impact the smartphone exerted over 15 years ago.
When considering the convergence of health and AI, the approach we use to employ these technologies is a critical factor in how it impacts the end users. As builders in the space, we take our approach to integration of these powerful technologies very seriously.
Below are our set of considerations and opportunities we are looking at bringing to our end users by integrating AI/LLMs and the good ole’ Machine Learning into Sentur.
Foundational Principles
Safety: In the realm of health and mental well-being, technology integration must start by evaluating the safety profile of that technology. In the domain of AI, the deployment of expertly crafted and rigorously tested models, fortified with appropriate safeguards, is essential for outward-facing engagements with users. If interaction quality or model reliability is uncertain, confining usage to internal logic is advised to uphold safety standards.
Privacy: Crafting highly personalized solutions in mental health represents a remarkable leap forward, promising tailored assistance that resonates deeply with individuals’ needs and preferences, thereby driving engagement with these solutions. As we harness this power, we remain steadfast in ensuring encryption protocols, anonymization, and layered security that guarantees that each user’s personal journey remains secure and confidential.
Governance: Incorporating robust governance mechanisms is pivotal in upholding the responsible integration of technology in our mental health platform. As we implement features that have touch points with AI models, it is important to make sure that end users understand who they are talking to and allow them to EASILY flag interactions/content or other material that might deviate or raise concerns. The controls, monitoring and flagging embodies our commitment to fostering a secure and beneficial user experience.
Augment & Scale, Not Replace Human support: We believe that the therapeutic relationship between the therapist/coach and the client is a key factor in the healing/advancement of a client. Trying to claim that technology will replace that today is irresponsible. Our core principle as of today is aid professionals (Therapists/Coaches) to amplify and expand their reach not limit it.
Exploring New Frontiers for Our Clients
Deep Personalization: AI offers a tremendous leap forward to personalization of digital solutions. Before LLMs, machine learning algorithms offered a level of personalization based on aggregating large amounts of user data and identifying key profiles of individual users in terms of likes/dislikes and trends of behavior. AI with LLMs can take this customization to a new level where we can not only cater to user desires and needs but also craft intricate journeys that align with their distinct profiles and are based on expert trained and vetted modalities encompassed in highly specialized AI models. This, coupled with AI’s human-like interaction, furnishes a potent N of 1 experience.
Engagment: Today, the primary challenge faced by mental health Apps & Technologies is user engagement with the solutions. By integrating deep personalization, ethical gamification, and predictive algorithms for mental states, which consider not only subjective feelings but also incorporate data from wearables such as heart rate variability (HRV), activities, and sleep patterns, we can overcome this challenge and deliver a delightful experience while improving the well-being of individuals.
Externalization of Inner Experience: Externalizing inner experiences provides individuals with a tangible representation of their thoughts and emotions. This visual or tangible output helps users gain a clearer understanding of their internal world, promoting self-awareness and self-reflection. When considering generative AI beyond just text (i.e. image generation, video…etc) combined with advancement in VR (i.e. Apple’s Vision Pro), we can truly enable clients to externalize their inner experiences as never before.
Expert guided exercises and workflows: Healing doesn’t always happen during office hours and the work clients do in-between their therapeutic sessions is of tremendous impact on their progress. AI can deliver that “guided” experience to practice enabling you to practice the techniques your therapist provided. Imagine doing a self-reflection exercise guided by an AI that can navigate you through the ins an outs of self-reflection and advance you through the different levels of that exercise. Anytime! At any hour!
Multilingual, Cross-Cultural: The reality is that AI’s capacity for language translation is approaching human-level quality. This opens up a significant opportunity to extend global access to therapeutic approaches that are presently confined to specific languages due to constraints in training, geographical availability, and potential cultural nuances. With AI, we can deliver cutting-edge modalities across the world that bridge these human limitations while making sure the models we train have cultural sensitivies built-into them. This ensures the proper adaptation across cultures NOT ONLY across lauguages.
Future Innovations for Our Professionals
AI Expert Assistants: As more individuals begin engaging with these potent solutions, we gain the ability to discern effective approaches tailored to individual profiles. This allows us to suggest specific therapeutic interventions to therapists or coaches that have proven effective for individuals sharing similar profiles and mental states. Essentially, we embark on a journey to construct a comprehensive repository of evidence-based strategies that can be harnessed to empower mental health professionals in delivering even more targeted and impactful support.
Value-Based Care — Cross Population Trends & Insights: As these platforms evolve and draw in larger participant populations, an exciting avenue emerges: the ability to conduct comprehensive studies involving vast numbers of individuals. By analyzing the efficacy of various treatments and exploring novel approaches, these platforms can contribute to a robust body of evidence-based knowledge. This, in turn, empowers larger institutions to make informed decisions, implement effective interventions, and ultimately foster a paradigm shift towards value-based care in the field of mental health.
Final Words
In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, leveraging technology isn’t just about staying ahead; it’s about redefining possibilities.
At Sentur, we understand that the most effective way to influence technology is to embrace it responsibly and innovatively.
By aligning AI innovation with our clients’ actual needs, we ensure every technological leap is a step forward toward progress, not distraction.
