Is the Robot Psychologist the Next Big AI App?

Mention the phrase "robot psychologist" and meme-worthy images of automatons or perhaps human-like robot hosts fictionalized by HBO's Westworld may come to mind. Yet part of what practicing psychologists do, such as administering certain types of psychological tests, assessments, and questionnaires, can be automated -- the technical capabilities exist today. And the technology is growing exponentially more sophisticated. For example, researchers at MIT have created an artificial neural network computer model that can detect depression from natural conversation [1]. Will robot psychologists be commonplace one day?