Human Connection

Thirteen to twenty-five percent of the American public is now using AI as a resource for mental health, asking psychological questions, requesting validation and attempting relational problem solving. While I can see some benefit to this, it also greatly concerns me.

I work for a small private counseling group called Oaks Counseling. I am proud to work with my fellow professionals who care about their work and behave ethically. They do their own emotional work to be stable, healthy human beings before they are counselors and they work dilligently to provide quality care to those who come to them. I've referred at one time or another to nearly every other therapist who works with my group.

The other day during a rare common break, several of us rallied in one of the offices to discuss current trends we were witnessing in mental health, when suddenly we realized that amongst the three of us, all three seasoned professionals were experiencing a decline in our caseloads. You must know that the three of us in that room almost never are without a waitlist. For any one of us to have immediate openings is rare. For all three of us to have openings has never happened as far as I know in the almost twenty years I've been practicing.

By now I know the pendulum swings. Culturally we go through periods where people reach out for help less, so I am unafraid for my profession. What I am concerned about is the damage this current trend may do to the public. I have no doubt that AI is useful for organizational and learning tasks. What I do not believe is that it can replace the value of human connection.

I remember watching an episode of Black Mirror fifteen years ago where AI infultrated the porn industry (which by now it has actually done as Black Mirror has been especially accurate in predicting the future). What struck me then was how such a potentially damaging experience could be even sadder and more effective at isolating humans.

And now we use AI for therapy (with virtually no guardrails). What essentially felt like uniquely human experiences are now being handed to inhuman technology. Trying to fix very human problems without humans. So goes the world. "Cheaper." "Fewer mistakes." "More accessible." How much further will we go into isolation from one another before we completely disolve. What tragedy will it take for us to wake up to one another in love and vulnerability? Wendell Berry help us.