This self-access class provides an introduction to the ways artificial intelligence is beginning to influence therapy and mental health practice. Focusing on key themes and emerging issues, the session opens up the conversation about how therapists can thoughtfully engage with AI in practice.
In the session you will be introduced to:
- AI in Practice: Insights into how AI is being used in therapeutic contexts, including its potential role in diagnosis and support tools.
- Ethical Considerations: The opportunities and risks of AI integration, and why it is important for therapists to engage with these questions now.
- Impact on Service Users: How service users are beginning to form relationships with social AI, and what this might mean for the therapeutic relationship.
This session is designed to spark reflection and provide a foundation for therapists who want to stay informed about the growing influence of AI. It serves as a starting point to consider the challenges and opportunities of this rapidly developing field.
This is an edited recording of Dr. Neil McArthur’s live presentation at the 2024 COSRT Winter Conference.
About the Trainer
Dr. Neil McArthur
Dr. Neil McArthur is Director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manitoba.
He is the author of The Ethics of Sex (Routledge, 2023) and co-editor, with Jon Danaher, of Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Issues (MIT Press, 2017). He has written for numerous media outlets including VICE, the Guardian, Fast Company, the Globe and Mail, and Time.
Dr. McArthur serves on the Editorial Board of Sexual and Relationship Therapy: International Perspectives on Theory, Research and Practice. His current research focuses on Artificial Intelligence, specifically on social AI and the use of AI for companionship and intimacy. In October 2023 Maclean’s Magazine named him one of Canada’s fourteen leading thinkers on AI.
