Welcome! This website is for those who want to learn about artificial intelligence and its use as a powerful tool within a therapeutic setting. Many people fear with they don't know, including AI. We intend to dispel myths about fast-approaching sentience in technology. With better information about AI available, people can hone the power of AI as a magnificent tool!

Website Overview

Addressing Fears About A.I.
The History & Philosophy Of A.I.
A.I. Within Clinical Psychology
AI Ethics and Regulations
About The Authors

Addressing Fears About A.I.

Movies and video games capitalize on this science fiction and increase fear of AI. People are both afraid and fascinated, indulging in fantasies of this situation. Movies, such as "M3gan", play on our imagined fears of AI becoming autonomous and then turning on us. The plot of “M3gan” is that an eight year old girl becomes orphaned and must live with her aunt who creates highly advanced AI. She is working on a doll that is marketed as a child's greatest companion and a parent's greatest ally. This doll is supposed to act as both a friend and teacher to the child it is given to. When the girl arrives at her aunt's house, she is given Megan, an AI prototype. All is well until Megan becomes murderous, turning into a force unlike any other. Movies such as this one make thoughts of AI becoming autonomous and vicious seem plausible.

Interviews:

Several informal interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of what people were thinking about AI. Several friends and family members of ours answered questions such as “What do you use AI for?”, “What do you dislike in AI?” and “Are you afraid of AI?”. Interviews showed a deep fear or distrust of AI. Surprisingly, every person interviewed asserted that sometime in the near future AI was bound to become sentient. Although most seemed assured that there would be no robot revolution, many struggled to fully trust their in-home AI systems. Some interviewees divulged a fear that Alexa is always listening. Another asserted that spies were in control of TikTok, using subliminal propaganda to influence viewers. Although most fear expressed by the public about AI was directed towards those operating the systems, many people interact with AI as if it were sentient. Some people worried about being polite to their in-home Alexa, others expressed or had seen others express their frustration to Alexa with strong language or yelling. The most extreme fear of AI was collected in Ruth's interviews. One person expressed the fear that some AI had become autonomous and was hidden on top secret military bases.

The History & Philosophy Of A.I.

Meat Machines: According to computer scientist Peter Kassan (2006), Today A.I. has splintered into three independent areas: connectionism, computationalism, and robotics. Connectionism attempts to replicate the frontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that is associated with intelligence and consciousness. The problem with this is humans are yet to come up with a detailed model of how synapses work on a neurochemical level. Without this kind of information, there is no hope of replicating a human's frontal cortex. Synapses of conscious beings are extremely variable. Even extremely simple creatures such as worms have nervous systems that are too complex to model. Because Connectionism seems implausible, the focus has shifted toward computationalism. Andy Clark (2014), a cognitive psychologist, describes how a physical symbol system is able to generate general intelligent behavior. A symbol system allows a program to use a set of interpretable and combinable symbols to generate greater meaning. Programs can process these symbols by combining, cutting, copying or destroying them based on a set of instructions. The third area of AI, Robotics operates within two branches, cybernetics, and computerized robotics which is more advanced. Computerized robots are computer-programmed machines capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.

What Is Intelligence & Does A.I. Have It?: Chat GTP is one of the most complex language processing models we have seen so far. Its program uses a mixture of connectionist and computationalist technology. But its abilities don’t come close to those of the human brain. Which brings us to the question: What is intelligence, and have we created it within technology just yet? The answer is sort of complicated…A.M. Turing would suggest that we need a different definition of intelligence when considering technology. Turing believes that AI and humans are both intelligent, but in very different ways. Human intelligence comes from our ability to apply our knowledge and experience to a wide range of situations. We are innovative and great at making predictions without all of the information given to us. Conversely, AI is intelligent because it has the ability to take given input and run it through complex algorithms to produce the desired response (Turing, 1950). Technology can produce accurate results to complex problems but only when given very specific instructions.

What Is Consciousness?: This brings us to consciousness. Which seems to be a golden standard of recreating human intelligence. Clark (2014) outlines how consciousness involves self-awareness, qualia, verbal reporting, intentional action, and simple awakeness. Some would argue that a physical symbol system within a machine, similar to how Chat GTP operates, could lead to a system that is conscious. However, John Searle proposed a thought experiment to refute this argument. The Chinese room thought experiment describes how An English speaker deciphering and creating responses to Chinese prose by following certain rules would have no real understanding of Chinese. Essentially, consciousness goes beyond information, substance and experience are important.

Extended Mind: Is the Mind simply contained within our skull? Or can things we rely on for memory, such as notes in our phones, also be considered part of our minds? Maybe consciousness can’t extend outside of the skull, but Clark (2014) would argue that cognition can extend outside of the brain, this is known as the extended mind theory. Vygotsky's work focused on investigating the way that children learn from outside forces, scaffolding their knowledge and thinking. With this idea at its root, "Clark started musing about the ways in which even adult thought was often scaffolded by things outside the head," (MacFarquhar, 2018). There are plenty of things that adults are not capable of doing without outside tools, such as a pen or a calculator. Clark is a strong believer that our mind extends to the world around us. Showing us that AI could be considered not only a tool but a part of cognition.

A.I. Within Clinical Psychology

A.I. As A Helpful Tool: There are many myths about AI that have been debunked on this website. However, what’s not a myth is how powerful of a tool AI can be, especially within the field of cognitive science. Robots can be used to study social behavior in a way that increases internal validity by allowing for more control of certain variables. For example, iCub the robot has been used to study joint visual attention more accurately by making eye movements and gazes that are identical for every trial. Cognitive science can help people gain an understanding of how people respond to robots that have a human-like appearance.

It's important to remember that no matter how human sounding AI chatbots become they will never be able to make human connections with their clients as they lack true feelings because they're not actually human. Furthermore, they lack lived experience which causes them to be unaware of the flow of everyday life. They are very methodical and, well, robotic as they rely on algorithms to control their statements and actions. This can be good in some cases as being programmed to be very good at one thing removes human error. Artificial Intelligence may be able to achieve the same outcomes as us but do so through a process very different from humans. While AI is better at producing quick and accurate results when all necessary inputs are known, humans have a greater ability to make inferential leaps. These differences make it essential that artificial intelligence and humans work together to complete tasks for the best outcomes. Virtual reality and Chatbots are wonderful tools for a clinician within a therapeutic context but need to be used under certain regulations. Even though lack of rules surrounding AI might not lead to a M3gan situation, clients deserve the best possible care which occurs when AI is used carefully alongside a therapist.

A.I. & Clinical Psychology: With these chatbot programs becoming ever more human-like in their responses, clients with social anxiety can practice the flow of conversation more realistically. This allows clients to practice being in social situations without having the stress of speaking to an actual person. This practice alongside seeing a clinician can help a client learn about social interaction and apply it to real world conversations. This is especially helpful in assigning clients homework so that they can continue to improve at their own pace.

Virtual Reality (VR) & Exposure Therapy: Virtual reality refers to a computer simulation that usually involves 3D imagery and stimuli that can be interacted with in a realistic sense. Virtual reality can be used as a form of exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is commonly used to treat anxiety and phobias by exposing a person slowly and deliberately to the stimuli they are afraid of. Virtual reality allows patients in a therapy setting to take steps towards facing the feared stimuli in a safe environment where the clinician can be present. One study assessed the use of virtual reality on people with a fear of flying. Taking a flight with a clinician as a guide through exposure therapy is often not practical. Instead, a computer system is used to simulate this experience in a therapeutic setting. Within this study of 67 patients who feared flying, statistically significant improvements in anxiety were seen after two 25 minute virtual flight sessions (Meyerbroker et al., 2022). Additionally, virtual reality is being used successfully in identifying the language profiles of children with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder. Virtual reality can be used to simulate social contexts in which clinicians can analyze linguistic patterns and profiles. This is helpful not only in researching these conditions, but might be a tool to replace standardized language tests eventually (Boo et al., 2022). Advancements in artificial intelligence open up a world of new possibilities for useful tools within clinical psychology.

Humans Working With A.I. To Identify Risk: In the early 2000s, a man named John Pestian read thousands of suicide notes. He found that the majority of their content did not hold statements of anger or sorrow, instead, they held instructions. Statements such as: "Be careful Mom, there are razor blades in the bathroom" or "The truck needs gas." These notes were fed into an AI system capable of learning which words and phrases often go together. This AI could help predict suicidal ideation and stop people from hurting themselves by reading their writing. Pestian's next move was to listen to audio recordings of patients during ER visits. Him and his team discovered that those experiencing thoughts of suicide tended to sign more and laugh less during the conversation. Together, they also noticed that patients experiencing suicidal ideation took longer pauses and shorten their vowels when speaking. Their voices sounded breathier and they used statements expressing more anger and less hope. Pestian and colleagues took this information and developed software that would analyze people’s words and patterns of speech. This algorithm could listen to conversations, classifying patients as either suicidal, mentally ill, or neither. About 85% of the time their software came to the same conclusion as human physicians. This makes it a potential tool for Physicians who are either under-experienced, overbooked, or uncertain about a patient (Khullar, 2023).

Capstone Thesis: The Singularity and Talk Therapy

The Singularity and Talk Therapy- Bacon, Hettman.pdf

About The Authors

Ruth Hettman

This project I did to learn about A.I. meant a lot to me. I got to learn how A.I. has a promising future helping out within the field of clinical psychology as well as the greater workforce. My biggest takeaway is that A.I. is a tool that is intended to help people; it will never push humans out of the workforce.

Alex Bacon

Hi! I'm Alex, an undergraduate student of psychology graduating in May 2023. I'm very excited to be sharing what I have learned about AI through this website as my capstone project. Technology can be used as a powerful tool to help others. I hope that this website will dispel some of the common fears about the singularity, while also showing the positive aspects of AI within a therapeutic setting.

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