Tavory T. Regulating AI in Mental Health: Ethics of Care Perspective. JMIR Ment Health. 2024;11:e58493. doi:10.2196/58493
This article argues against the sole use of the responsible AI approach for guiding ethical decision-making for AI development. Tavory argues that this predominant approach fails to capture AI’s impact on human relationships, which is critical when developing AI-based digital therapeutics. The ethics of care perspective comprises five tenets, modified here and tailored for AI development and use in mental health. The first is understanding the importance of relationships. Ethics of care would suggest developers and implementation scientists map the relationships surrounding AI. Second, AI should be developed to acknowledge and attend to the needs of others and modify behavior based on individual needs. Third, providing context for AI is critical, and AI should be designed for specific mental health issues and with a diverse sample and research team. Fourth, developers should be held to similar standards of care as mental health professionals. This should be accomplished by creating new universal policies. Fifth, the value of emotions and their role in the decision-making process should be understood by AI acting in the mental health field. AI will impact relationships and social constructs across all five of these elements, and adherence to these may be essential for the successful implementation and integration of AI into mental health spaces. The development of universal ethics when developing mental health AI is critical for the future especially as the generation raised on AI begins to navigate the new world of digital mental health interventions.