“I think technology like this is risky for a couple of reasons. One is that it industrializes mental health in a way that it probably shouldn’t be — understanding and caring for humans is complex and difficult, and that’s why there are such deep issues of trust and care and training involved in becoming a mental health professional,” Cook told VentureBeat via email. “Proponents might suggest we just use this as a guide for therapists, an assistant of sorts, but in reality there are far more ways this could be used badly — from automating the diagnosis of mental health problems to allowing the technology to seep into classrooms, workplaces, courtrooms, and police stations. … Like all machine learning technology, [voice-analyzing tools] give us a veneer of technological authority, where in reality this is a delicate and complicated subject that machine learning is unlikely to understand the nuances of.”

Wiggers, K. (2021, August 31). AI startups claim to detect depression from speech, but the jury’s out on their accuracy. VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2021/08/31/ai-startups-claim-to-detect-depression-from-speech-but-the-jurys-out-on-their-accuracy/