Season 2Episode 7

AI in Mental Health: Sentiment, Therapy Bots & the Ethics of Emotional Intelligence

15 November 2025 · 00:11:41

Can a machine truly understand how you feel?From therapy bots that listen at 2 am to sentiment-analysis systems that can detect stress in your voice before you even notice it, artificial intelligence is entering one of the most delicate spaces of human life, mental health.In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore the rise of Emotional AI; technology designed to interpret, respond to, and even anticipate human emotion.We unpack how these systems work, where they help, and what happens when empathy is simulated rather than felt.Because when care becomes code, trust becomes everything.In this episode:How therapy bots like Woebot and Wysa are reshaping access to mental health support.The science behind sentiment analysis — and how AI detects anxiety before it starts.The ethics of engineered empathy and who owns your emotional data.What happens when the line between comfort and code begins to blur?Because technology can listen, but understanding is still a human skill.Airs Saturday, November 15, 2025, at 12 pm AESTRESOURCESAI Podcast Website: decoded-podcast.comAI Prompts & Tools: promptengineeringcookbook.comAI Strategy & Research: strategen-ai.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyoneMentioned Frameworks & Resources:WHO Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence forHealthAustralian Privacy Act 2024 – Emotional Data ProvisionsStanford AI & Mental Health Research LabMindStrong Health PlatformWoebot HealthWysaReplika AIIf you’re in Australia, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.In the United States, reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.In the United Kingdom, you can contact Samaritans on 116 123.And wherever you are in the world, you can find local crisis services at findahelpline.com, an international directory of mental-health support lines.findahelpline.com: global mental health support directory

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