More than 30 international experts in artificial intelligence, mental health, ethics, and public policy convened in January to address a growing and largely ungoverned risk: the widespread use of generative AI tools for emotional support — especially among young people — with little understanding of the consequences, as reported in an official statement published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The online workshop, organized by the Delft Digital Ethics Centre (DDEC) at TU Delft — the first WHO Collaborating Centre on AI for health governance — was held as a pre-summit event of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. Its core finding was stark: AI adoption in everyday life has far outpaced any serious investment in understanding what it is doing to people’s mental health.
Sameer Pujari, WHO’s AI Lead, put it plainly: “The pace of AI adoption in people’s daily lives has far outstripped investment in understanding its impact on mental health. Closing that gap requires coordinated action and dedicated resources from both the public and private sectors.”
The workshop produced three concrete recommendations. First, generative AI use should be treated as a public mental health concern — requiring responses from governments, health systems, and industry that go beyond tools explicitly designed for mental health. Second, mental health impact assessments should be built into AI monitoring frameworks, tracking effects on emotional dependence and long-term outcomes. Third, AI tools used for mental health support must be co-designed with clinical experts and people with lived experience, including youth, and grounded in cultural and contextual realities.
WHO Director of Digital Health Dr. Alain Labrique framed the stakes clearly: “As AI increasingly interacts with people in moments of emotional vulnerability, these systems must be designed and governed with safety, accountability and human well-being at their core.”
Looking ahead, WHO is building a global Consortium of Collaborating Centres on AI for Health — spanning all six WHO regions — to support member states in responsible AI adoption. A pre-convening of candidate members took place at TU Delft in March, where institutions aligned on shared priorities and laid the groundwork for the collaborative infrastructure the challenge demands.
