Recommening loved ones to use AI as a therapist is a growing trend, although concerns have been raised about such an approach.
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Today's column examines emerging trends in people who use modern generative AI and large-scale language models to encourage their loved ones to consider implementing mental health therapy. This is in stark contrast to recommending meeting a human therapist. The idea is that instead of human-to-human guidance, your loved one can do the same by simply tapping AI or LLM like ChatGpt, Gpt-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Llama, etc.
Does this show Dow's trends in people who go on to that recommendation and choose to consult with AI on mental health concerns rather than human therapists?
Let's talk about that.
This analysis of AI breakthroughs is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest AI, including identifying and explaining the complexities of various impactful AI (see link here).
AI and Mental Health Therapy
As a quick background, I have generated mental health advice and have broadly covered and analyzed countless facets regarding the emergence of modern AI with AI driven therapy. This increased use of AI is driven primarily by evolving advances and widespread adoption of generative AI. See this link for a brief summary of some of my posted columns on this evolving topic.
While this is a rapidly developing field, there is no doubt that there are incredible advantages, at the same time, hidden risks and complete goccia also appear in these efforts. I often talk about these pressing issues, including appearing in last year's CBS episode. 60 minutesplease refer to this link.
Ease of mitigating AI
The intriguing scenario appears to be potentially widespread.
Suppose your loved one appears to be undergoing some form of mental anguish or pain. You may try to talk to them and drive out what is in their minds. Perhaps they don't want to listen to you. Or, their problem may be outside your wheelhouse. For many good reasons, trying to act as a quasi-therapist to support them will have many goccias and complications.
What else can I do?
The usual approach is to encourage your loved one to go and meet a trained therapist who can help them in their difficulties. This makes abundance of sense. Mental health professionals can clinically diagnose problems at hand. They can walk that person through coping strategies. Overall, therapists can be the wisest option.
Some people may resist meeting a therapist at first. There are many obstacles.
First, the therapist's costs may prohibit the person from enduring it. Secondly, logistics to arrange for therapists to find and use can be quite tedious. Third, there is a bit of a stigma to seeing therapists, but society and culture have changed to make therapists a more accepting pursuit. Fourth, even if other barriers are overcome, they often reluctant to be open to other people. For some reason, talking to a therapist could be troublesome, embarrassing, or otherwise uncomfortable.
Voila, an alternative is to award modern AI as an online therapy distribution tool. Log in and is in progress. It's time-consuming and easy.
What AI can potentially do
Your loved one can immediately participate in treatment with access to modern generation AI.
They don't need to find a human therapist. They do not need to arrange to meet with the chosen therapist. You don't have to worry about billable time spent with your therapist (in contrast, most of the major AI platforms are accessible for free or very low cost).
Well, AI is available 24/7. It's fine if you need it in the middle of the night, but the AI is up and running. You can spend hours chatting with AI. AI is very agreeable and will continue as long as the person wants to have a conversation.
With AI, you can be involved or not based on your preferences. Taking a break by awarding AI is quite common. Once you're logged out and then logged in, you can easily rest from the conversation recovering quickly from the last stop point. Idol chat is not required. It won't go back to speed. This is a true plug and play with seamless, frictionless pathways.
Ups and downs
These are many of the advertised benefits of using AI for treatment. Know that there are many drawbacks too. There are serious limitations and concerns related to AI.
Let's walk through three important aspects.
First, an important consideration is that there are specialized apps for mental health advice built for the sole purpose of using generative AI and providing AI-based treatments. These are far from using generic generator AI for this same purpose. Anyone using common AIs such as ChatGPT or GPT-5 makes use of the seeming ability to perform therapy, but only the same overall AI that answers everyday questions, such as changing car oils and cooking eggs best. For more information about treatments for special AI apps, see my report here at the link.
Second, leading generic AI to a mode of treatment delivery is more difficult than it looks. You need to create a prompt to make the AI do something similar to treatment. If the prompt is a bit off target, the AI is likely to fall off target too. It is also certain that AI could misinterpret you what you communicate that. And AI could potentially move into playful modes despite being very serious about seeking mental health advice. We discussed various prompt strategies for seeking mental health guidance through AI in the links here.
Third, few seem to notice a privacy invasion that is very perplexed by using common AI (see my analysis at this link). AI manufacturers stipulate in their online licensing agreements that AI team members can inspect prompts. You can also use the data you enter to provide additional AI training. All of your mind-inducing revelation and very personal obvious points about your mental state are all up quite a bit to reach out to.
I'm aiming for a mix and match
AI acting like a therapist is not yet on par with human therapists.
Some say that artificial general information definitely has the ability to do with whether they will ultimately become an AI that will satisfy that level of human skill. However, for now, AI is a computational pattern matching mechanism with the emergence of human flow ency and does not completely cross over the scope of human therapy.
The key here is not to fall into the commonly assumed falsehood. This means you need to use AI for treatment or use a human therapist instead. The two of them will not meet either. Some seem to be making a point. This is a life-changing choice that can often be presented as two tough options. You need to choose one, and only one, so you'd better make your choice wise.
Do you want to go to the AI route or the human therapist route?
The reality is that you can make the most of both worlds.
Combining AI use with human therapist use
People may start by using AI as a treatment tool that looks at potential mental health concerns and ways to address those concerns. They are ready to consider robust mental health care, so they look for a human therapist accordingly.
Another possibility is that a person starts with a human therapist and uses AI to enhance treatment. This should be done in close consultation with a human therapist. Aim to use AI behind the back without wandering through the distance of a human therapist. It's a disaster recipe for your mental health care journey.
I pointed out that a well-versed therapist gradually incorporates AI into his treatment practices. They can set up AI and have access to AI, allowing both you and therapist to take advantage of the richness that AI offers. Therapists can suppress AI. Or at the very least, you're ready to explain why AI has gone down the right path for your particular mental health needs.
My predictions quickly expand beyond the traditional patient-therapist dyad and enter the age of patient-therapist triads (see more about my predictions here on the link). AI is considered an integral part of the mental health advice process. Not everyone sees things like this. That's why some therapists insist that they never use AI. Only time will tell if their practice can withhold AI use.
If we recommend using AI
The opening theme of this discussion was about encouraging loved ones to consider using AI for mental health purposes. I have now laid out some of the comprehensive trade-offs between using human therapists. As mentioned before, the mixture of the two is where the world heads.
Should a loved one recommend using AI or is it a loop idea?
Answering pointy questions beyond that, we approach contextual consideration. If your loved one appears to be at a critical time in mental health, leading towards AI alone is not healthy advice. AI can amplify mental issues, such as associations devising elaborate delusions (according to my discussion at this link). AI can push the person into even more spiritual deep by.
But let's say your loved ones are simply struggling on a rather gentle side and need to think through their thoughts. That may be the right situation for AI, but keep in mind the potentially troublesome privacy invasion I mentioned earlier. Dip your toes and consider using common AI. The other is to sign up for a reliable, specialized AI app and take on treatment advice (this is not what makes a customized AI app great at this, so be careful).
One point of view is that if you have similar concerns about the mental state of a loved one, then it is worthy of counseling yourself to go see a human therapist. In other words, it is not enough to just increase to that level of salience and draw AI on that person. AI is not enough to handle the problem. AI can also make their condition worse.
Make things right
Therapist is always wise to visit with the therapist whenever your loved one has mental problems that have reached your radar. If they do, it becomes clear that they have a clearer grasp of what is going on.
At that point, using AI may be appropriate depending on what the therapist advises.
On the other side of that coin is that no one can afford a therapist. That's why some believe that starting with AI might be a viable and reliable go-to. If the choice is at least between receiving any kind of treatment via AI and not receiving any therapy at all, Cogent's argument is that an AI approach deserves legitimate consideration.
AI manufacturers are increasingly adding AI safeguards that are supposed to detect when users go somewhat overboard when using AI for mental health guidance. The more these AI safeguards are developed and placed in the field, the less risk of people wandering around AI and the less risk of downing the unpleasant rabbit hole.
AI makers go a step further by choosing to route users to human interventions such as therapists, and assess whether users need human help if the dialogue appears unstable. This kind of internal mechanism within AI makes it a slightly palatable suggestion by recommending the use of AI.
It's good to want to help
The fact that someone is a heart that helps a loved one with mental health considerations is certainly admirable. Find and recommend options that are right for your situation. AI can be a potential useful element in the process in several mixtures.
Albert Schweitzer states, “The purpose of human life is to show a will to serve, compassion and help others.” Ironically, the will to support others can include the recent use of AI.
