Youth mental health expert: Kids need to stay socially connected amid AI boom

NINA MOINI: All this week on the show, we've been bringing you perspectives on AI use in education. We're turning now to artificial intelligence and youth mental health. A new study from Common Sense Media, a group that studies and advocates for using screens and digital media sensibly, found that 70% of teens have used AI companions, which means platforms designed to serve as digital friends.

And as the technology gets more sophisticated, experts worry about AI's potential to exacerbate this crisis of loneliness and youth mental health. Joining us to talk more about this is Brandon Jones, executive director of the Minnesota Association for Children's Mental Health. Great to talk to you again, Brandon. Thanks for coming on the show.

BRANDON JONES: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

NINA MOINI: We're still learning a lot about the capabilities of AI. I think it's fair to say, though, that there is concern about how children, in particular, whose brains are still developing, are using it. And this one study points to ChatGPT telling teens how to get drunk or conceal an eating disorder or just-- there's so much information at the fingertips of these kids. What's your reaction to all of that? How are you going about tackling this?

BRANDON JONES: Absolutely, I'm trying to keep a curious but yet cautious attitude towards it all, because AI's in everything right now. And it's just going to get more improved and better. And this current generation of kids, the Alpha generation, they're going to grow up with it just like the Gen Z's grew up with the internet. This is what it is.

And as parents, caregivers, and youth workers, those who pay attention to young people, we have to understand that this dynamic is just going to get even more massive. And we have to be curious on how is it affecting the mental and emotional well-being.

That brings a lot of fear. I understand that. But at the same time, it can also be a tool that can be utilized to help.

NINA MOINI: And I wonder how it should be used as a tool, if you've given that thought. Because I wonder what would happen if a child or a teen or whoever confides in AI with a mental health concern instead of a parent or a teacher or a friend or a professional. What do you think about that?

BRANDON JONES: Yeah. Well, right now a lot of AI is being cultivated by what you put into it. And there can be a lot of false what we call toxic positivity that can take place within these devices, where it is giving you things to make you feel good in a moment. Ideally, that makes sense. But it does take out that human factor.

We have to understand that it's important for kids to have both an online experience and a quote, unquote "offline experience," even though those are meshed very much these days. But we do need to keep that human factor, that interpersonal connection, and not allow our kids to be so heavily reliant on their devices and AI.

NINA MOINI: Are you using AI at all in your role in working with children and their mental health?

BRANDON JONES: Yes, we are. We are using AI. Again, it's built into all the software programs we use. So it does come up. But again, we do check. We check facts. We run ideas across our teams. We think about, is this really what we want to do?

But mainly how we're using AI is brainstorming. Are there other things that we haven't thought about just yet? What are some-- how do other people feel about this? Do a massive web search, pulling ideas and information.

But again, it's literally almost in every device or software that we're using. And if it's not there yet, it's coming.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And I think, too, about loneliness and just when a device is able to talk back to you in that way, more isolation perhaps among youth. Are you concerned about that?

BRANDON JONES: Yeah, I am definitely concerned about that. It's very easy to talk to a companion app and keep your emotions to yourself. It's very easy for that companion app to pull cookies from your device and information that you fed it to give you back information on how to make you feel or to encourage you.

And that will cause a lot of young people to stick with themselves because they're still getting that feedback. And I think that that's important, that encouragement. But it's coming from a software device. It's not coming from the people that know you very well or the humans around you who are trying to help you develop.

And that's important. Some of the most important things for children is encouragement, attention, and support. Those are very important things. And if we have young people relying on AI for those three things, we're going to see a different society.

We're going to see a different development of young people. They're going to get some of that from there. But it can't be solely from there.

NINA MOINI: We also talked this week with a student. We talked with a teacher. We talked with a former teacher who now consults with classrooms. And one of the terms that a couple of them mentioned that I thought was interesting, too, was this idea of learned helplessness.

And they were applying it less to the mental health aspect, but just using it for schoolwork and the idea that, how are you really learning to retain any information if you have all of the information right at your fingertips? And then does that set young people up to be helpless in a situation where they cannot rely on some other machine?

BRANDON JONES: Absolutely. It's going to test a lot of our intelligences, especially our ability to critically think or be analytical or even use abstract thinking. When you can just ask your device to give you something, it doesn't take a lot of effort. So I do think it's going to have an impact.

And again, as parents, caregivers, adults, folks who work with young people, we're going to have to really push for young people to stay socially connected interpersonally and not just relying on these devices to help break through that. Still utilize the tools, but it can't be the sole thing that they're using, otherwise, we will see a learned helplessness.

We will see a lot of kids, who, when adversity shows up, they don't what to do. And then their emotional state shows up for them in a way where they can't manage it. And now they're looking for their device to help them navigate. And the device might not have the capability to do that.

NINA MOINI: What I hear you say is about structure and balance and discipline and some of the things that, obviously, our youngest people and some adults often can't give themselves.

And I wonder about sharing the responsibility as perhaps parents, teachers, the students or the kids themselves to put some structure around that use. Are those conversations that you're having in the mental health space as it relates to school?

BRANDON JONES: Oh, absolutely. We're all trying, and especially right now, the nature of schools around safety, the nature of schools around well-being. So those conversations are happening.

And I think that this is just an additional factor into those conversations around internet safety. We don't want kids to feel bullied, isolated, alone. We don't want them to be over-reliant on AI to push through those emotional states.

So the conversations are taking place. And I would encourage them to continue. Even though we're in a current state of high emotion, we need to continue these conversations not just throughout the school year, but even over the summer.

And those conversations are the responsibility of all of us, because we all play a bit of a role in the development of children.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And it's not all bad. I mean, people were probably concerned when students got cell phones and even calculators or googling and all of that.

BRANDON JONES: Oh, yeah.

NINA MOINI: What are some of the positives that you see in terms of how AI can be used, particularly around education, but also perhaps around mental health and other kinds of development?

BRANDON JONES: Yeah. I think one of the positives is that it can allow young people to think beyond their current circumstances or beyond the box, as we like to say, where AI can give you some ideas that you may not have thought of.

And you may be curious about a question that you might not be able to get an answer from the folks that are in your circle. And it does open up the world to young people. It also can spark your curiosity as well. It's like, what else can this AI thing do? What else can I do?

And I think that that's healthy. That's healthy. Because sometimes, we don't get that from our day-to-day. Because let's be honest, especially this generation, the algorithm that we see online also shows up in our day-to-day. We find ourselves around the things that make us comfortable, where AI can expand that and put us in spaces that we normally are not in.

So there are definitely some positives. And again, it is a tool. Any tool that we have can have positive outcomes or ones that we don't necessarily want. And it's going to be up to us to help steer young people in a way to continue to use it in a positive manner.

NINA MOINI: Brandon, I appreciate your time as we all navigate this new terrain together and hope you'll come back another time. Thank you.

BRANDON JONES: Yeah, absolutely. Anytime. Take care everyone.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. Brandon Jones is the executive director of the Minnesota Association for Children's Mental Health. You can listen to this week's series about education and AI at mprnews.org or by searching Minnesota Now wherever you get your podcasts.