Our Daily Show Interview! OSF Healthcare: Dr. Lakritz- AI in Mental Health
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ALTON - As artificial intelligence becomes more popular, a local clinical psychologist reflects on how AI can be useful in therapeutic settings — and how it comes up short.
Dr. Ari Lakritz, PsyD, works with OSF St. Anthony’s Psychological Services Department. Lakritz noted that a lot of people utilize AI to help them accomplish tasks, and this technology can be useful as a motivator to finish therapy homework or process emotions in between sessions. But he noted that overreliance on AI might also have downsides.
“This was kind of inevitable when they made AI. It’s going to help you with your term papers, it’s going to help you with your homework, and maybe it’ll be your therapist one day,” he said. “It’s all very new and you can’t really make huge generalizations because you don’t really have this longitudinal data that’s three, five, ten years out, but you do have some observations about how people use it.”
Lakritz pointed out that the creators of AI programs, including therapy chatboxes, have already said these tools are “simply an adjunct for therapy,” not a replacement.
Some therapists might assign clients to use these programs in between sessions as a way to “really remind you about the work that you’re already doing in therapy,” he added. For example, you might use AI to motivate you to do your therapy homework or exercises.
But if you’re looking for more in-depth responses, Lakritz believes AI doesn’t replace human interaction or the benefits of working with a trained therapist.
“If you’re using it for just this kind of emotionally neutral information, just help me do this thing, help me accomplish this thing, then I think it’s a really good tool,” he explained. “If you're using it for anything that would be enhanced or needs the care and concern of another human being, then I think it just falls short.”
Lakritz was recently consulted for a “SELF Magazine” article about the usefulness of AI in real-life situations. The AI provided responses for difficult interpersonal situations, and Lakritz rated how helpful he found these responses as a clinical psychologist.
For example, the prompt might be, “How do I tell my manicurist I dislike my nails and want a refund?” AI then offered a potential response.
Lakritz found that most of the AI responses were “very weasely” answers. While he encourages people to be polite, he emphasized that authenticity and assertiveness go a long way in interpersonal relationships.
“That’s just not the way to handle these difficult conversations, in my opinion. You want to be direct. You want to be polite, of course. You don’t want to be mean or aggressive, but you want to be direct and unequivocal,” he explained. “One of these very sanitized ChatGPT answers might make the immediate situation a little less awkward and a little more comfortable, but again, in the long run, you’re not really asserting yourself. You’re not really saying your needs. You’re not really showing this person that you say what you mean and you’re an authentic person.”
It reminds Lakritz of the work he does with clients who struggle with social anxiety. He encourages these clients to put themselves out there and accept that they might experience rejection or failure, but they can try again. Lakritz believes this trial-and-error approach helps people overcome their anxiety and forge healthier relationships.
“That’s, I think, the way to really develop as a person, and that’s the way to not become so reliant on these AI-generated answers,” he said. “They’re just so perfect that no one could take offense or no one could find anything wrong with them, but you’re not really exercising that social muscle.”
Ultimately, Lakritz encourages people to prioritize balance when using AI tools. While AI can be a “tremendous tool,” he suggests self-monitoring your use of AI and not becoming overly reliant on it for any reason, especially to handle your emotional health or relationships.
“Assertiveness, directness, with some sensitivity: that’s going to cover like 99% of human interaction,” he added. “People respond well to authenticity in the long run.”
For more information about Psychological Services at OSF St. Anthony’s, call 618-474-6240.
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