Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have hit us hard and fast. We love new technology, and the more it appeals to our own vanity, the better. Contemplating the hazards, and the benefits, though, I am reminded of the myth of Narcissus. So great was his pulchritude, that—cursed by the god Nemesis such that he should never be loved back by one he loves—Narcissus encounters his own image reflected in a pool of water, and despairs. He realizes that he is seeing his own reflection, and not that of another. In some versions of the myth, he starves to death. In some, he turns into a flower of unsurpassed beauty. In others still, he dies by his own hand.

AI is considered by many to be an existential threat, one of the top ways our smartest minds fear we could become extinct, essentially by our own hand. Others see AI as our salvation. We don't know what will happen; AI introduces massive uncertainty. We don't pause and reflect much when we invent something new and exciting. Rather, we rush to adopt it. We've seen this with computers and social media. Introducing AI the way we have may be akin to throwing gasoline on a fire. There are legitimate concerns that by the time we realize what's happening, it will be too late.

Therefore, I was glad to see new work on the ethical issues surrounding the potential wholesale adoption of AI in therapy. In this interview with Nir Eisikovits, a professor of philosophy and founding director of the Applied Ethics Center at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, about his paper,The Ethics of Automating Therapy (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 2024), we cover some of the most pressing issues.........

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