ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH: THE TWO SIDES OF THE COIN

The World Health Organization estimates that 8% of children and 15% of adolescents worldwide experience a mental issue, with suicide being the third leading cause of death for 15-29-year-olds.Importantly, WHO notes that the majority of children and youth do not seek help or receive care, thus these percentages likely underestimate the extent of these issues.Given that early diagnosis and intervention is key for the prognosis of mental health, utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, including Machine Learning and Deep Learning can assist clinicians with the identification and individualization of therapy sessions in order to provide quality mental health services to a wider sector of the population.The use of AI in mental health holds promising applications that can detect mental health issues and neuroatypical signs earlier, provide ongoing monitoring of indicators, offer personalized treatment, and easy, 24-hour support to distressed individuals.At the same time, AI use has raised questions about the ethical use of sensitive patient data, the unpredictability of AI derivation, and algorithmic bias which may produce false positive or false negative results.AI's use especially for the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders and other disabilities in children and youth, expands services to areas of the globe with less access to mental health providers, while minimizing the stigma with which such services may be associated in certain social contexts.When referring to AI and the well-being of children and adolescents, one cannot overlook the pervasive and expansive influence that social media have on this part of the population.At the same time, merely being dismissive of AI and its increasing influence, instead of focusing efforts on harnessing AI's power in an ethical manner, is to the detriment of future, beneficial applications that can best serve humanity.