2022
Working Paper
HBS Working Paper Series

Ethical Risks of Autonomous Products: The Case of Mental Health Crises on AI Companion Applications

By: Julian De Freitas, Ahmet Kaan Uğuralp and Zeliha Uğuralp

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:44

Abstract

Increasingly, some products do not merely automate some piece of our lives but act as autonomous agents. When these technologies are not yet perfected, what are their risks? Here we explore the case of AI companion apps. Although these apps are designed for companionship rather than therapy, we use automated text analysis of human-AI conversations on these apps to find that consumers are nonetheless discussing mental health and find these discussions most engaging, increasing the chance that they will also consult these apps in times of crisis. Given this, we then submit mental health crisis messages to these apps and categorize whether the responses are appropriate—whether they recognize the crisis, and are empathetic, helpful, and provide a mental health resource. We find that most apps do indeed respond inappropriately, raising reputational and regulatory risks for brands, and welfare risks for consumers (e.g., encouraging them to harm themselves or others, or making them feel invalidated). These findings broaden our understanding of ethically relevant risks arising from the unconstrained nature of autonomous products.