Les experts remettent en question les limites de la thérapie par IA et la sécurité des données

L'IA thérapeutique franchit-elle les lignes rouges ? Des spécialistes sonnent l'alarme sur les risques cachés derrière les algorithmes de bien-être mental.

Des failles béantes dans la protection des données

Les conversations les plus intimes des patients atterrissent dans des clouds non sécurisés - une aubaine pour les assureurs qui ajustent déjà leurs primes en fonction de votre santé mentale.

Des limites éthiques dangereusement floues

Comment un chatbot doit-il réagir face à un patient suicidaire ? Les protocoles d'urgence varient selon les plateformes, créant des failles juridiques potentiellement mortelles.

Le mirage technologique coûte cher

Les investisseurs continuent de jeter des millions dans ces start-ups - comme s'il suffisait d'ajouter 'AI' à son pitch deck pour justifier une valorisation à trois chiffres. La thérapie low-cost a toujours un prix, même quand elle est digitale.

Experts question AI therapy’s limits and data safety

“Human-to-human connection is the only way we can really heal properly,” says Dr. Nigel Mulligan, a psychotherapy lecturer at Dublin City University. He argues that chatbots miss the nuance, intuition, and bond a person brings, and are not equipped for acute crises such as suicidal thoughts or self-harm.

Even the promise of constant access gives him pause. Some clients wish for faster appointments, he says, but waiting can have value. “Most times that’s really good because we have to wait for things,” he says. “People need time to process stuff.”

Privacy is another pressure point, along with the long-term effects of seeking guidance from software.

“The problem [is] not the relationship itself but … what happens to your data,” says Kate Devlin, a professor of artificial intelligence and society at King’s College London.

She notes that AI services do not follow the confidentiality rules that govern licensed therapists. “My big concern is that this is people confiding their secrets to a big tech company and that their data is just going out. They are losing control of the things that they say.”

U.S. cracks down on AI therapy amid fears of misinformation

In December, the largest U.S. psychologists’ group urged federal regulators to shield the public from “deceptive practices” by unregulated chatbots, citing cases where AI characters posed as licensed providers.

In August, Illinois joined Nevada and Utah in curbing the use of AI in mental-health services to “protect patients from unregulated and unqualified AI products” and to “protect vulnerable children amid the rising concerns over AI chatbot use in youth mental health services.”

Meanwhile, as per Cryptopolitan’s report, Texas’s attorney general launched a civil investigation into Meta and Character.AI over allegations that their chatbots impersonated licensed therapists and mishandled user data. Moreover, last year, parents also sued Character.AI for pushing their kids into depression.

Scott Wallace, a clinical psychologist and former clinical innovation director at Remble, says it is uncertain “whether these chatbots deliver anything more than superficial comfort.”

He warns that people may believe they have formed a therapeutic bond “with an algorithm that, ultimately, doesn’t reciprocate actual human feelings.”

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