Experts: Psychology, AI integration could help tackle social issues

The deep integration and communication between psychology and artificial intelligence hold promise for addressing social challenges, experts said on Thursday.

"Technological revolution and industrial transformation represented by the development of AI is profoundly reshaping society," said Jiang Yi, deputy head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Psychology, at a news conference during the China Association for Science and Technology's annual meeting.

AI demonstrates unprecedented potential in cognition, learning, decision-making and even emotional simulation, Jiang said. Psychology, as a foundational discipline that explores patterns of the human mind and behavior, now faces a historic opportunity for in-depth cross-disciplinary integration with artificial intelligence.

He stressed that this integration is not simply a technological overlap, but a profound dialogue and collaborative innovation between the two fields to better understand the nature of "intelligence."

Zhang Hui, an associate professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, echoed those views, describing a reciprocal relationship between the two disciplines.

"The powerful pattern recognition and data processing capabilities of AI — including behavioral data, brain imaging data, text data and physiological data — enable psychologists to discover complex patterns and individual differences that traditional methods struggle to capture, greatly accelerating the research process," Zhang said.

She likened AI to "an unprecedented telescope," allowing psychologists to explore the mysteries of the human mind in new dimensions and with greater precision. Psychology, in turn, helps AI better understand human nature and align technology more closely with human needs.

Jiang emphasized that fostering deep integration between psychology and AI is not only a cutting-edge scientific pursuit, but also a key foundation for building a future ecosystem of harmonious human-machine coexistence.

He noted that AI is already beginning to play a role in mental health counseling by improving access to such services. In an aging society, where many elderly people live alone, AI can also provide emotional support and companionship. In education, a single AI-powered robot can deliver personalized instruction to every student.

However, Jiang cautioned that these technologies are still in their early stages and remain far from perfect. AI's ability to recognize and interpret human emotions still falls short of that of humans, and exposure to vast datasets filled with negative emotions or biases may cause the technology to deviate in problematic ways.