Our voices may convey subtle clues about our mood and psychological state. Now, scientists are using artificial intelligence to pick up these clues, with the aim of building voice-analyzing technologies that can identify individuals in need of mental-health care. But others caution they could do more harm than good. At the University of Alberta, computing science PhD student Mashrura Tasnim has developed a machine-learning model that can recognize the speech qualities of people with depression. Her goal is to create a smartphone application that would monitor users' conversations and alert their emergency contacts or mental-health professionals when it detects depression.

Mashrura Tasnim's goal is to create a smartphone application that would monitor users' conversations and alert their emergency contacts or mental-health …