(Un)designing AI for Mental and Spiritual Wellbeing

With rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacting human health and wellbeing, scholarly discourse should focus equally on the prospective opportunities and harms of Human-AI Interaction (HAI) in Computer-Supported Collaborative Work and Social Computing (CSCW). This panel invites critical interdisciplinary discussion around the (un)designing of AI by asking: how, when, where, and why should AI (not) be involved in sociotechnical systems for mental and spiritual health and wellbeing? Motivated by functional, technical, and ethical concerns, the panel aims to ensure that: (1) progress in HAI for mental and spiritual health is informed by expertise from the respective clinical disciplines; (2) ethical and responsible design principles lie at the core of research motivations and methodologies; and (3) AI hype can be tempered by caution given its impacts on marginalized and stigmatized groups. A panel of respected experts in mental health, spiritual care, and AI will discuss CSCW topics regarding HAI in contexts of clinical practice (e.g., electronic health records, patient portals, decision-making and referral systems, technology-supported interactions during bedside care or clinical appointments) as well as social contexts beyond the clinic (e.g., social apps, online health communities and social media, and computer-mediated communication in spiritual/religious groups).

Conference paper