Overview
- A new American Psychological Association health advisory says generative AI chatbots and wellness apps lack proof of safety and effectiveness for mental-health use and remain weakly regulated.
- The APA advises against using these tools in place of licensed professionals, noting their responses in crises can be limited and unpredictable.
- Researchers are urged to run randomized clinical trials and long-term studies, which the APA says require greater transparency from technology companies.
- Policy recommendations include modernizing federal rules, addressing Food and Drug Administration oversight gaps, banning chatbots from posing as licensed clinicians, and adopting comprehensive data-privacy and safe-by-default protections.
- The advisory calls for clinician training on AI, bias and data privacy, encourages providers to ask patients about app or chatbot use, and seeks safeguards to protect children, teens and other vulnerable groups from unhealthy dependence.