Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Psychiatry: Insights from a\n Global Physician Survey

Abstract

Futurists have predicted that new technologies, embedded with artificial\nintelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), will lead to substantial job loss\nin many sectors disrupting many aspects of healthcare. Mental health appears\nripe for such disruption given the global illness burden, stigma, and shortage\nof care providers. Using Sermo, a global networking platform open to verified\nand licensed physicians, we measured the opinions of psychiatrists about the\nlikelihood that future autonomous technology (referred to as AI/ML) would be\nable to fully replace the average psychiatrist in performing 10 key tasks (e.g.\nmental status exam, suicidality assessment, treatment planning) carried out in\nmental health care. Survey respondents were 791 psychiatrists from 22\ncountries. Only 3.8% of respondents felt that AI/ML was likely to replace a\nhuman clinician for providing empathetic care. Documenting (e.g. updating\nmedical records) and synthesizing information to reach a diagnosis were the two\ntasks where a majority predicted that future AI/ML would replace human doctors.\nAbout 1 in 2 doctors believed their jobs could be changed substantially by\nfuture AI/ML. However, female and US-based doctors were more uncertain that the\npossible benefits of AI would outweigh potential risks, versus their male and\nglobal counterparts. To our knowledge, this is the first global survey to seek\nthe opinions of physicians on the impact of autonomous AI/ML on the future of\npsychiatry. Our findings provide compelling insights into how physicians think\nabout intelligent technologies which may better help us integrate such tools\nand reskill doctors, as needed, to enhance mental health care.\n

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