The opportunities and risks of large language models in mental health

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Lawrence, Hannah R., Schneider, Renee A., Rubin, Susan B., Mataric, Maja J., McDuff, Daniel J., Bell, Megan Jones
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Lawrence, Hannah R.
Schneider, Renee A.
Rubin, Susan B.
Mataric, Maja J.
McDuff, Daniel J.
Bell, Megan Jones
author_facet Lawrence, Hannah R.
Schneider, Renee A.
Rubin, Susan B.
Mataric, Maja J.
McDuff, Daniel J.
Bell, Megan Jones
contents Global rates of mental health concerns are rising, and there is increasing realization that existing models of mental health care will not adequately expand to meet the demand. With the emergence of large language models (LLMs) has come great optimism regarding their promise to create novel, large-scale solutions to support mental health. Despite their nascence, LLMs have already been applied to mental health related tasks. In this paper, we summarize the extant literature on efforts to use LLMs to provide mental health education, assessment, and intervention and highlight key opportunities for positive impact in each area. We then highlight risks associated with LLMs' application to mental health and encourage the adoption of strategies to mitigate these risks. The urgent need for mental health support must be balanced with responsible development, testing, and deployment of mental health LLMs. It is especially critical to ensure that mental health LLMs are fine-tuned for mental health, enhance mental health equity, and adhere to ethical standards and that people, including those with lived experience with mental health concerns, are involved in all stages from development through deployment. Prioritizing these efforts will minimize potential harms to mental health and maximize the likelihood that LLMs will positively impact mental health globally.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_14814
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The opportunities and risks of large language models in mental health
Lawrence, Hannah R.
Schneider, Renee A.
Rubin, Susan B.
Mataric, Maja J.
McDuff, Daniel J.
Bell, Megan Jones
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
Machine Learning
Global rates of mental health concerns are rising, and there is increasing realization that existing models of mental health care will not adequately expand to meet the demand. With the emergence of large language models (LLMs) has come great optimism regarding their promise to create novel, large-scale solutions to support mental health. Despite their nascence, LLMs have already been applied to mental health related tasks. In this paper, we summarize the extant literature on efforts to use LLMs to provide mental health education, assessment, and intervention and highlight key opportunities for positive impact in each area. We then highlight risks associated with LLMs' application to mental health and encourage the adoption of strategies to mitigate these risks. The urgent need for mental health support must be balanced with responsible development, testing, and deployment of mental health LLMs. It is especially critical to ensure that mental health LLMs are fine-tuned for mental health, enhance mental health equity, and adhere to ethical standards and that people, including those with lived experience with mental health concerns, are involved in all stages from development through deployment. Prioritizing these efforts will minimize potential harms to mental health and maximize the likelihood that LLMs will positively impact mental health globally.
title The opportunities and risks of large language models in mental health
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14814