Decision-making on an AI-supported youth mental health app: A multilogue among ethicists, social scientists, AI-researchers, biomedical engineers, young experiential experts, and psychiatrists

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrt.2025.100119
• Publication Date: 2025-04-18T15:20:42Z
• Authors: Dorothee Horstkötter; Mariël Kanne; Simona Karbouniaris; Noussair Lazrak; Maria Bulgheroni; Ella Sheltawy; Laura Giani; Margherita La Gamba; Esmeralda Ruiz Pu...; Marina Camacho; Finty Royle; Irene Baggetto; Sinan Gülöksüz; Bart Rutten; Jim van Os
• Keywords: Bioethics; Experiential Knowledge

This article explores the decision-making processes in the ongoing development of an AI-supported youth mental health app. Document analysis reveals decisions taken during the grant proposal and funding phase and reflects upon reasons why AI is incorporated in innovative youth mental health care. An innovative multilogue among the transdisciplinary team of researchers, covering ethicists, social scientists, AI-experts, biomedical engineers, young experts by experience, and psychiatrists points out which decisions are taken how. This covers i) the role of a biomedical and exposomic understanding of psychiatry as compared to a phenomenological and experiential perspective, ii) the impact and limits of AI-co-creation by young experts by experience and mental health experts, and iii) the different perspectives regarding the impact of AI on autonomy, empowerment and human relationships. The multilogue does not merely highlight different steps taken during human decision-making in AI-development, it also raises awareness about the many complexities, and sometimes contradictions, when engaging in transdisciplinary work, and it points towards ethical challenges of digitalized youth mental health care.