Artificial Intelligence Can Help America's Mental Health Crisis

Years from now, there may be a shortage of psychiatrists in the United States as their mental health system is already overburdened and the growth in demand for the services of psychiatrists outpaces supply, according to a 2017 report from the National Council for Behavioral Health. Some proponents say that, by then, artificial intelligence, an unlikely tool, may be ready to help the mental health practitioners mitigate the impact of the deficit. Artifical intelligence and medicine are made for each other, it has shown promise in diagnosing disease, interpreting images and even zeroing in on treatment plans. Even though psychiatry is a unique human field in many ways, requiring emotional intelligence and perception that computers can't stimulate, even here, AI could have an impact. The field could benefit from AI's ability to analyze data and pick up on patterns and warning signs that are very subtle, humans might never notice them.