AI Therapy with Slingshot's Derrick Hull

Thinking Machines: AI & Philosophy

“Everyone should go to therapy.” It’s a common statement, but much harder to achieve than it looks. There’s only one therapist for every 10K would-be clients, and the gap is only growing every year.

That gap is what my latest guest - Dr. Derrick Hull - has spent his career trying to fix. Now serving as the founding Clinical Lead at Slingshot AI, Derrick previously led Clinical R&D at Talkspace, where he was instrumental in popularizing text-message therapy, a previously controversial modality now recognized as critical to increasing accessibility to mental health care. Derrick has had a fascinating career, serving as a practicing psychologist, a clinical advisor and researcher for top startups, and a highly accomplished academic with publications in Nature, the National Academy of Sciences, and Oxford University Press, with his research supported via R01 grants through NIH.

It’s been amazing getting to work with Derrick at Slingshot, and I’m so excited to share just a snapshot of the wisdom and insight I collect from him everyday.

In our latest conversation, we touch on...

• The ethical problems (and opportunities) of AI therapy
• The role of empathy in practicing psychology
• Why being a therapist can be an “impossible profession”
• The surprising literature on therapeutic effectiveness
• … and many, many things in between

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