Ethical Implications of Mental Health Chatbots: Addressing Anthropomorphism, Deception, and Regulatory Gaps

Thomas Leis
Proceedings of Fourth European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness, PMLR 294:376-382, 2025.

Abstract

Mental Health Chatbots (MHCBs) present both opportunities and ethical concerns in mental healthcare. While they promise greater accessibility and immediate support, their design and marketing may foster anthropomorphic perceptions that may lead to user over-reliance and potential deception. Current debates oscillate between optimism, emphasizing MHCBs’ potential to fill gaps in mental healthcare, and skepticism, highlighting risks such as misinformation and inadequate regulatory oversight. However, both perspectives often lack a structured ethical foundation. This paper sketches a novel ethical framework grounded in principles entrenched in bioethics and AI Ethics to establish clear guidelines for responsible MHCB design and deployment. By shifting the focus from whether MHCBs should be used to how they should be ethically implemented, this framework provides concrete recommendations for policymakers, developers, deployers, and professional therapists to ensure MHCBs align with ethical and clinical standards.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v294-leis25a, title = {Ethical Implications of Mental Health Chatbots: Addressing Anthropomorphism, Deception, and Regulatory Gaps}, author = {Leis, Thomas}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Fourth European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness}, pages = {376--382}, year = {2025}, editor = {Weerts, Hilde and Pechenizkiy, Mykola and Allhutter, Doris and Corrêa, Ana Maria and Grote, Thomas and Liem, Cynthia}, volume = {294}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {30 Jun--02 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mlresearch/v294/main/assets/leis25a/leis25a.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v294/leis25a.html}, abstract = {Mental Health Chatbots (MHCBs) present both opportunities and ethical concerns in mental healthcare. While they promise greater accessibility and immediate support, their design and marketing may foster anthropomorphic perceptions that may lead to user over-reliance and potential deception. Current debates oscillate between optimism, emphasizing MHCBs’ potential to fill gaps in mental healthcare, and skepticism, highlighting risks such as misinformation and inadequate regulatory oversight. However, both perspectives often lack a structured ethical foundation. This paper sketches a novel ethical framework grounded in principles entrenched in bioethics and AI Ethics to establish clear guidelines for responsible MHCB design and deployment. By shifting the focus from whether MHCBs should be used to how they should be ethically implemented, this framework provides concrete recommendations for policymakers, developers, deployers, and professional therapists to ensure MHCBs align with ethical and clinical standards.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Ethical Implications of Mental Health Chatbots: Addressing Anthropomorphism, Deception, and Regulatory Gaps %A Thomas Leis %B Proceedings of Fourth European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2025 %E Hilde Weerts %E Mykola Pechenizkiy %E Doris Allhutter %E Ana Maria Corrêa %E Thomas Grote %E Cynthia Liem %F pmlr-v294-leis25a %I PMLR %P 376--382 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v294/leis25a.html %V 294 %X Mental Health Chatbots (MHCBs) present both opportunities and ethical concerns in mental healthcare. While they promise greater accessibility and immediate support, their design and marketing may foster anthropomorphic perceptions that may lead to user over-reliance and potential deception. Current debates oscillate between optimism, emphasizing MHCBs’ potential to fill gaps in mental healthcare, and skepticism, highlighting risks such as misinformation and inadequate regulatory oversight. However, both perspectives often lack a structured ethical foundation. This paper sketches a novel ethical framework grounded in principles entrenched in bioethics and AI Ethics to establish clear guidelines for responsible MHCB design and deployment. By shifting the focus from whether MHCBs should be used to how they should be ethically implemented, this framework provides concrete recommendations for policymakers, developers, deployers, and professional therapists to ensure MHCBs align with ethical and clinical standards.
APA
Leis, T.. (2025). Ethical Implications of Mental Health Chatbots: Addressing Anthropomorphism, Deception, and Regulatory Gaps. Proceedings of Fourth European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 294:376-382 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v294/leis25a.html.

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