(A) I Wrote It
“I’m not a biter I’m a writer / for myself and others,” Jay-Z, What More Can I Say
Would it matter to you if you found out that your favorite musician used an AI tool to write their lyrics? What about if you learned that your favorite digital creator couldn’t draw to save their lives, but instead used AI prompts to generate images that they later represented as original work? Would that change the way that you thought about their art? Or would it even matter? What if your therapist provided you a tool for “Ideas for Coping with Anxiety” and it turned out that the list was generated by AI and not by your therapist themself? How would you feel?
AI offers incredible potential to augment and support service provision and it’s important that therapists prioritize ethical considerations in implementation of it. This post is focused on ethical considerations for leveraging AI as a tool for creative endeavors in clinical practice, whether that means in marketing, intervention design, document creation, etc. The language I used in that last sentence was very intentional - AI is a tool to be leveraged, not to be humanized and relied upon as a primary source.
NSFW Language Warning
Some ideas of how to prioritize ethical implimentation in your own practice:
Use your voice, don’t replace it: When you’re writing for yourself and others, your authentic voice will shine through the words you use. Relying on AI to generate the bulk of your content diminishes your uniqueness, waters down the creativity of our profession, and misrepresents you to readers and potential clients. If your client wanted an AI generated list of coping skills (for example), they could have entered that prompt into an AI themselves.
Use for inspiration or initial idea gathering: Maybe you’ve got a wealth of experience and knowledge that you’d love to communicate, but you’re just not sure where to start - enter a prompt into an AI tool to ask for a list of writing ideas! Then just choose a topic and address it.
Use to organize: Some AI tools are great at paraphrasing, editing, formatting, or organizing text. Once you get your thoughts out , you can then enter your text into an AI tool and leverage it to assist with any of those.
Review any AI generated content scrupulously: An AI tool is not a mental health professional; any content generated regarding health and wellness requires rigorous review before publishing to ensure accurate and safe information. Such a review is necessary for any of the points mentioned previously; you are the mental health professional and are responsible for the quality, accuracy, and potential for harm of any information published under your name.
Disclose use and/or lack of use of AI tools: When you use AI in generating content, consider disclaiming the use of the tool that you leveraged, including how you used it and for what purpose. This promotes honesty and provides clarity to clients. Remember that AI is a tool and not a contributor, and therefore should not be “credited.”
AI Disclaimer: This post is original and written by Kevin Boyd of Future Full of Hope, PLLC. No AI tool was leveraged in the development of this post
