C O M M E N TAT O R First Response to Francis Gregg: The Place of Artificial Intelligence in Psychological Therapy Aidan Peters, St. Francis Xavier University I. Introduction In his paper, Francis Gregg (2021) excellently argued that contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) are incapable of acting as logotherapists/therapists. In my response, I will argue that far more complex AI can one day serve as superior therapists/logotherapists to humans. This argument will rely primarily on two assumptions. Firstly, the human cognitive capabilities fundamental to logotherapy described by Gregg (like empathy, an ability to explore subjective meaning, theory of mind, sentience, etc.) are rooted in neurological function, and are replicable in analogous cognitive systems (i.e., AI). Secondly, AI will become increasingly complex and capable of higher-level cognitions. In sum, I agree with Gregg that current AI should only serve as tools for self-actualization, but I argue that AI will eventually be able to serve as therapists themselves. II. Artificial Sentience AI, which can be broadly defined as “machines that are capable of performing tasks that we define as requiring intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, planning, and problem-solving” (McCarty as seen in Gregg, 2021), has incredible potential to evolve. As noted by Gregg (2021), the neural networks serving as the basis for AI model the brain’s networks composed of real neurons. In assuming a purely materialist reality, it is plausible that neurons produce all forms of cognition (including sentient ones) like empathy, theory of mind (which, for simplicity, will be considered the same thing in this paper based on their conceptual similarity), transcendental thought, etc. Firstly, sentient experiences have neuroimaging correlates, indicating that physical neural activity is at least associated with sentience. For example, Mooneyham, Mrazek, Mrazek, Mrazek, Phillips, & Schooler (2017) have observed that particular neural profiles of activity are associated with various states of conscious attention. Similarly, empathy, an essential ability required of a logotherapist (Gregg, 2021), also has various neural correlates (Borja, Abdelgabar, De Angelis,McKay, Keysers, Gazzola, 2020). Secondly, studies monitoring the sentient effects of changes to the brain support the notion that the nervous system is responsible for sentient experience; for example,
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