The Cost-Benefit of Interdisciplinarity in AI for Mental Health
Katerina Drakos, Eva Paraschou, Simay Toplu, Line Harder Clemmensen, Christoph Lütge, Nicole Nadine Lønfeldt, Sneha Das
TL;DR
This paper addresses how to balance interdisciplinarity in AI-based mental health chatbots to achieve value-alignment and regulatory compliance. It analyzes the current landscape, highlighting limited cross-disciplinary teams and lifecycle-phase integration. It argues for phased involvement of technology, healthcare, ethics, and law experts guided by Value Sensitive Design and ethics-by-design within the EU AI Act framework. It offers actionable recommendations and calls for empirical evaluation of interdisciplinarity costs and benefits to inform safer and more accessible mental health AI.
Abstract
Artificial intelligence has been introduced as a way to improve access to mental health support. However, most AI mental health chatbots rely on a limited range of disciplinary input, and fail to integrate expertise across the chatbot's lifecycle. This paper examines the cost-benefit trade-off of interdisciplinary collaboration in AI mental health chatbots. We argue that involving experts from technology, healthcare, ethics, and law across key lifecycle phases is essential to ensure value-alignment and compliance with the high-risk requirements of the AI Act. We also highlight practical recommendations and existing frameworks to help balance the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinarity in mental health chatbots.