372 - Understanding AI Categories in Counselling Practice

Yeah.

Thank you, Ken.

And I think that what we, what as a, as a profession, what we're gonna have to grasp is that AI is now gonna be part of the therapeutic field, whether we like it or not.

Um, it's being introduced, um, certainly in, in health services.

In the UK, we have the National Health Service, which, um, is our, is our primary healthcare provider here in the UK.

And as a consequence of that, they are, they are putting in AI tools.

And one of the things we have to kind of understand is the levelness of AI tools.

So some digital tools are built specifically for healthcare.

They're regulated.

Others may sound helpful and supportive, but are they really designed for therapeutic work? And what about the governance? What about data protection? What about client safety? So I think as therapists, we really, really need to understand what the categories of AI tools are and be able to identify them should we come across them either in practice, should a client bring them in the work, or should we, um, come across them in the work we do.

I know a lot of our listeners work in, um, the National Health Service in the UK.

Um, and what I would say is this isn't just a UK-specific issue.

This is gonna be worldwide.

AI in healthcare is gonna roll out worldwide.

So if you're listening in a different part of the world, almost certainly at some level this is gonna affect you.

So thinking about these categories, Ken, what are they and how do we identify them?

Yeah.

It's, uh, it's a good topic, and I'm glad you brought this today, Rory.

And it, it takes me back to a question that I asked in our Facebook group.

I, I, I asked a question about AI and the use of AI in therapy, and I had one or two comments coming in saying, "Why are you referring to this as AI? It's an LLM.

It's a large language model.

It's not really LM... uh, AI.

It's a predictive thinking model." And they're 100% right.

And what we need to understand is that not all AI is equal, and we are gonna see it in therapy, in maybe the tools that our agency or the NHS might require us to use, or we're gonna see it coming through a client who comes into the therapy room and says, "You know what I use?" I don't know, I'm gonna just pick something.

"ChatGPT, uh, and, and I speak about our sessions together." Um, so we are gonna see it, and understanding what the different categories of AI, and we're gonna cover three today that you're likely to see in therapy, is gonna give you a heads-up because, uh, they are weighed differently.