How artificial intelligence may affect our mental wellbeing

This editorial introduces a special issue in digital mental health and wellbeing and includes topics such as digital wellbeing, chatbots, virtual reality and youth mental health. This editorial also discusses the potential adverse psychological effects of an artificial intelligence (AI) centric future. We emphasise the need to be ‘wellbeing centric’ and not technology centric. AI can expedite tasks and ‘think’ on our behalf, but if the goal of humanity is to promote ‘wellbeing’ then ‘wellbeing’ should be a core design principle and an evaluation metric to assess AI technologies. We discuss how the potential adverse effects of social media can be a good case study for how we should assess the AI future – especially in the era of generative AI and AI companions. To illustrate a point, we explore a fictional scenario (akin to Laplace’s demon) that includes an AI agent that makes minute-by-minute ‘life recommendations’. We explore how such an AI could negatively affect our mental wellbeing, agency, autonomy and sense of free will – even if the ‘AI always knows best’. We explore conscious AI and the potential impact of AI from a positive psychology perspective.