MDLPA: Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and the Impact on Mental Disability Law

1.5 Hours | 1.5 CEs

This on-demand professional training program on Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, and the Impact on Mental Disability Law is presented by Michael Perlin, JD, and Heather Ellis Cucolo, JD in partnership with Mental Disability Law and Policy Associates (MDLPA).

In this program, we explore – we believe for the first time ever anywhere – the potential implications of AI for mental disability law decision-making in the areas of (1) civil commitment law, (2) retention and recommitment law, and (3) refusal of involuntary treatment law, predominantly as it relates to the question of diagnosis and right to refuse medication.

We introduce the basics of artificial intelligence and highlight the ongoing debate about the value (and morality) of using AI in the law. There has been much written about the use of AI in healthcare, such as the use of therapeutic chatbots (AI therapists) who can provide support and advice to individuals seeking help for mental health issues and integrated wearables, which can interpret bodily signals using sensors and offer human assistance when needed. However, the legal literature has remained silent on the impact of AI in mental health law decision-making, notwithstanding the considerable attention paid to the predicate question: what is the potential impact of AI on the diagnosis of mental illness?

To analyze this question, we explore how legal debates have focused on emerging AI technology using risk assessment tools (primarily in the criminal justice system decision-making process). We discuss the concerns surrounding the human-computer interface, specifically how humans collect and feed information into the tools and how humans interpret and evaluate the information that the tools generate. We briefly identify and cover the legal implications, including but not limited to data privacy, algorithmic bias, and professional liability.

We then consider the legal pitfalls of relying on risk assessment tools in the assessment of persons with a mental disability and discuss the concerns over using AI in the courtroom- specifically on the questions of prediction of dangerousness and accuracy in diagnosis. We investigate and theorize how all of this relates to the disposition of commitment cases, periodic review cases, and cases about a patient’s right to refuse treatment. Finally, we conclude with a consideration of the therapeutic jurisprudence implications of using AI in this area. There has been extensive therapeutic jurisprudence literature on all aspects of substantive mental disability law, but none of this has yet focused on the potential role of AI in the decision-making in question.

This program is intended for Individuals involved at any level of the mental disability law decision-making process; including those who serve as expert witnesses in the cases mentioned above (both hospital employees and those who work with patients’ rights/advocacy groups), and persons who regularly use risk assessment with similar populations.