Building AI for Mental Health: A Computer Scientist’s Perspective with Zainab Iftikhar

Podcast: Beyond the Couch: AI in Psychology · Ernest Wayde

Opublikowano: 2026-08-11

In this episode, Dr. Ernest Wayde sits down with Zainab Iftikhar, a PhD candidate in Computer Science at Brown University whose research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and AI for mental health. As the first computer scientist featured on the podcast, Zainab offers a unique perspective on how mental health AI systems are designed, evaluated, and used in the real world. The conversation explores why people turn to AI for emotional support, the benefits and risks of mental health chatbots, and what happens when users begin to rely on these systems in place of human connection. Zainab...