Alisha Wainwright

So before I got much further with John, I wanted to share with him my conversation with Miranda Wolpert, director of mental health at Wellcome, who has a decidedly ambitious view of how transformative AI could be.

Listening to Miranda talk about entirely new forms of therapy, including things like avatar-based treatments, it really stuck with me.

This is actually something we explored in more depth in season two of When Science Finds a Way.

So if you're curious, I implore you to go back and listen to that episode.

But overall, it's a reminder that therapy itself is already starting to look very different from what many of us might imagine.

And it made me think about my own relationship to therapy and how much that's already shifted, all without me really noticing.

When I first started going to therapy, this was well before the pandemic, I would go in person.

And at the time, I could never have conceived of doing a Zoom session.

And then with the pandemic and the rise of having video calls, I don't even think twice anymore about engaging with my therapist on Zoom.

Zoom.

So now I'm wondering in five years, how open would I be to having an effective tool that functions like a therapist?

You know, I think my skepticism, I don't want to say it's not reasonable.

I think it's very reasonable.

But I'm also really moved by Miranda's

optimism because i do think there's a reason people are invested in trying to expand ai's use in the mental health space i just i feel like i need to hear more voices of the mirandas of the world who are coming from it from a medical stance and not from a like a company stance yeah and i think what's exciting about miranda's vision is it's very possible right everything she said

You know, I kind of feel a little similarly to autonomous vehicles.

So I think when initially autonomous vehicles came to the forefront of conversation in media, people were like,

no way, you know, the idea that what if they run over a person to save, like, you know, like how are they making ethical choices and et cetera.

And now.

I see them everywhere here in Los Angeles.