In the absence of stronger federal regulation, some states have been regulating apps that offer ai “therapy” as More people turns to artificial intelligence for mental health advice.
But the laws, all passed this year, don’t full address the fast-chunging landscape of ai software development. And app developers, policmakers and mental health advocates say the resulting patchwork of state laws isnisc isnys to protect users or hold the creators of harmful Technology Accountable.
“The reality is millions of people are using these tools and they’re not going back,” said karin andrea stepphan, CEO and Co-Founder of the Mental Health Chatbot App Earkick.
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Editor’s Note – This story include discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the US is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988Lifeline.org.
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The state laws take different approaches. Illinois and nevada have banned the use of ai to treat mental health. Utah Placed Certain Limits on Therapy Chatbots, Including Requiring Them to Protect users’ Health information and to clear disclose that that is the chatbot isn Bollywood. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California are also also Considering Ways to regulate ai therapy.
The impact on users varies. Some apps have blocked access in states with bans. Others say they’re making no changes as they wait for more legal Clarity.
And many of the laws don’t cover general chatbots like chatgpt, which are not explicitly marketed for therapy but are used by an untold number of people for it. Thos bots have attracted lawsuits in horific instals with users lost their grip on reality or took their own lives after after interacting with them.
VAILE Wright, Who Oversees Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association, Agreed that the apps should fill a need, noting a noting a notage of mental health provides, for the mental health costs, Uneven access for insured patients.
Mental health chatbots that are rooted in science, created with expert input, and monitored by humans could change the landscape, Wright said.
“This would be something that help people they get to crisis,” She said. “That’s not what’s on the commercial market currently.”
That’s why federal regulation and oversight are needed, She said.
Earlier this month, the federal trade commission announced it was opening inquiries into seven ai chatbot companies – Including the parent companetions of instagram and Facebook, google, google, chatgle, X), character.ai and snapchat – on how they “measure, test and monitor potentially negative impacts of this technology on children and teens.” And the food and drug administration is convening an advisory committee nov. 6 to review generative ai-enabled menal health devices.
Federal Agency Cold Consider Restrictions on How Chatbots are marketed, Limit addictive practices, require disclosures to users that they are not medical providers, requires to track and report Suicidal Thoughts, and Offer Legal Protections for people who report bad practices by companies, Wright said.
Not all apps have blocked access
From “Companion Apps” to “AI Therapists” to “Mental Wellness” apps, AI’s use in mental health care is varied and hard to define, let alone write laws around.
That has been to different regulatory approaches. Some states, for example, take aim at company apps that are designed just for friendship, but duan’t wade into mental health care. The laws in illinois and nevada ban products that claim to provide mental health treatment outright, threatening fines up to $ 10,000 in Illinois and $ 15,000 in Nevada.
But even a single app can be tough to categorize.
Earkick’s Stephan said there is still a lot that is “very muddy” about Illinois’ law, for example, for example, and the company has not limited access there.
Stephan and Her Team Initial Held Off Calling Their Chatbot, which looks like a cartoon panda, a therapist. But when users began using the word in reviews, they embraced the terminology so the app would show up in Searches.
Last week, they backed off using therapy and medical terms again. Earkick’s website described its chatbot as “Your Empathetic AI Counselor, Equipped to Support Your Mental Health Journey,” But now it’s a “Chatbot for Self Care.”
Still, “We’re Not Diagnising,” Stephan Mantained.
Users can set up a “panic button” to call a trusted loved one if they in crisis and the chatbot will “nudge” users to seek out a therapist if their mental health. But it was never designed to be a suicide prevention app, Stephan Said, And Police Bold Not Be Called If Someone Told The Bot About Thoughts of Self-Harm.
Stephan Said She’s Happy that People are looking at ai with a critical eye, but worried about states’ ability to keep up with innovation.
“The speed at which everything is evolving is massive,” She said.
Other apps blocked access immediatily. When Illinois Users Download The Ai Therapy App Ash, A Message Urges Them to Email their Legislators, Arguing “Misgued Legislation” Has Banned Apps Like ash Intended to regulate free to cause harm. “
A spokesperson for Ash did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.
Mario Treto JR., Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, said the goal was ultimately to make sure licensed therapistes was the onhest Oones doing
“Therapy is more than just word exchanges,” Treto said. “It requires Empathy, it requires clinical judgment, it requires ethical responsibility, none of which ai can trucate right right now.”
One chatbot company is trying to fully replicate therapy
In March, A Dartmouth University-Based Team Published the First Known Randomized Clinical Trial of a Generative AI Chatbot for Mental Health Treatment.
The goal was to have the chatbot, called therabot, treatment diagnosed with anxiety, depression or eating disorders. It was trained on vignettes and transcripts written by the team to Illustrate an evidence-based response.
The Study Found Users Rated Therabot Simlar to a Therapist and Had meaningfully Lower Symptoms after Eight Weeks Compared with People who didn’T Use It. Every interaction was monitored by a human who interacted if the chatbot’s response was harmful or not evidence-based.
Nicholas jacobson, a clinical psychologist with is leading the research, said the results showed early promise but that larger studies are needed to demonstrates with of people.
“The space is so dramatically new that I think the field needs to proceed with much gold green that that is HappyNing Right Now,” He said.
Many AI apps are optimized for engagement and are built to support everything users saying, rather than challenging people ‘thoughts the way the way. Many walk the line of company and therapy, BLURRING INTIMACY Boundaries Therapists Ethically Would not.
Therabot’s Team Sought to avoid those issues.
The app is still in testing and not widely available. But jacobson works about what strict bans will mean for developers Taking a careful approach. He noted Illinois had no clear pathway to provide evidence that an app is safe and effective.
“They want to protect folks, but the traditional system right now is really failing folks,” He said. “So, trying to stick with the status quo is really not the thing to do.”
Regulators and advocates of the laws say they are open to changes. But today’s chatbots are not a solution to the mental health provider shortage, said kyleman, who lobbied for the bills in illinois and nevada through his affiliation with the new Workers.
“Not Everybody Who’s Feeling Sad Needs A Therapist,” He Said. But for people with real mental health issues or suicidal thoughts, “Telling them, ‘I know that there’s a workforce shortage but here’s a bot’ – that is such a privateGed position.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department Receives Support from the Howard Hughes Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The ap is soly referencesible for all content.
—Devi Shastri, Associated Press Health Writer
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