Roundtable on Privacy and Responsible AI in Mental Health on 23 February 2026

AI in mental health – Keeping humanity at the centre of the next phase of innovation: What does it mean for #AI to assume a role in mental healthcare not as a static tool, but as an evolving participant in the therapeutic process?

That question was among those critically examined at a recent roundtable co-organised by the #NTUsg Centre of AI in Medicine (C-AIM), the Asian Centre for Health Behavioural Insights and Interventions (HABITS), and the Institute of Mental Health (IMH).

At the event, titled "Roundtable on Privacy and Responsible AI in Mental Health", Nanyang Assistant Professor of Philosophy Dr Eugene Chua introduced the Dynamic Contextual Certification (DCC) framework – an innovative ethical model that treats AI deployment as a living process. Rather than relying on fixed benchmarks, DCC emphasises context-sensitive, reversible, and ethically adaptive evaluation, drawing inspiration from safety models used in clinical research and AI governance.

Participants also confronted a harder truth: as AI grows more sophisticated in simulating empathy, it may reshape trust itself. Over-reliance – by patients or clinicians – is no longer a distant risk, but an emerging one. The consensus was that one-size-fits-all validation is inadequate for the complexity of mental health practice, necessitating rigorous risk management, continuous monitoring, clear patient safeguards, and culturally grounded systems attuned to local language and nuance.

 The insights from this roundtable will inform a forthcoming white paper, outlining initial principles and guidelines for safe, effective digital mental health strategies. These include incorporating ethical frameworks like DCC, developing culturally grounded models, and conducting multi-disciplinary implementation research — all guided by one fundamental goal: ensuring that AI in mental health remains human at its core.

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