Funding for AI-powered mental health apps is surging, while the field lacks enough research to be safe.

A bevy of startups have raised tens of millions of dollars in funding to apply AI and chatbots to provide mental health services to address everything from insomnia to anxiety and depression. This raises immediate ethical concerns around privacy, plus the evidence supporting the use of AI for mental health hasn't yet been established: one scientific review of 73 available mental health apps found only one referenced published scientific literature to support its claims.