🧠 Ethical and equitable AI for mental health: Opportunities & barriers 🧠
Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking alongside Valentin Tablan, Prof Andrea Cipriani, and Prof Anna Moore on a panel about the ethics of AI in Mental Health, facilitated by the incredible Catherine Galloway as part of Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence (CHIA) at the University of Cambridge.
I came away with a lot of ideas whirling around my head, here’s a few of them:
🧠 A New Mental Health Paradigm:
Imagine a mental health system that’s proactive, ambient, and responsive—using large-scale behavioural, biometric, and linguistic data to monitor well-being. This AI-driven ecosystem would identify early warning signs through subtle biomarkers, supporting individuals with well-timed “nudges” to guide them towards positive mental health practices. By shifting mental health from a crisis-driven model to one woven into daily life, AI could make mental wellness as routine as physical health.
(postscript: I’m particularly excited about this idea, as long as I ignore the slightly-gnawing potential-minority report-esque scenarios - but let’s just leave our Black Mirror hats off for now and focus on the opportunity).
👧 Supporting Young Minds Through Play and Empowerment:
For children, therapy can feel like something that is “done to them.” Human-centric, child-centred AI can make mental health feel like a journey they actively shape. This playful, child-led approach fosters a sense of agency and empowerment, introducing mental health as an engaging, accessible part of life.
🌍 Rethinking Funding for Equitable Access:
Much of the digital divide conversation centres on access to tech and infrastructure, but this event raised a vital point about how funding flows in AI can drive inequality. We need new funding models that free social entrepreneurs from the aggressive '10x' growth demands of traditional VC, allowing them to prioritise societal impact. Impact VC prioritises impact AS MUCH AS profit, but is there a scenario where investors are happy to receive more modest financial returns in favour of '10x' societal returns?? If not, public funding and social investments could drive equitable innovation, supporting communities who most need solutions but are often overlooked.
🤝 Steering AI Towards Ethical and Equitable Solutions
To guide AI towards ethical, inclusive outcomes, collaboration is key. Social entrepreneurs, healthcare providers, academics and equality-focused investors each bring essential perspectives that can steer innovation away from market-driven priorities and towards societal value.
Here's my two pennies worth.
Thanks to all the inspiring talks yesterday that helped form the above ideas. And thanks to John Suckling for inviting me to jump on the panel.
Nesta Founders Factory Nesta Mission Studio Cole Robertson, PhD Ogma
#equitableAI #ethicalAI #mentalhealth
