Artificial and Human Intelligence in Mental Health

Abstract

While technology has dramatically changed medical practice, various aspects of mental health practice and diagnosis remain almost unchanged across decades. Here we argue that artificial intelligence with its capacity to learn and infer from data the workings of the human mind may rapidly change this scenario. However, this process will not happen without friction and will promote an explicit reflection of the overarching goals and foundational aspects of mental health. We suggest that the converse relation is also very likely to happen. The application of artificial intelligence to a field that relates to the foundations of what makes us human our volition, our thoughts, our pains and pleasures may shift artificial intelligence back to its earliest days, when it was mostly conceived of as a laboratory to explore the limits and possibilities of human intelligence.