WP3: Creative use of AI for health and well-being

This work package is about AI, art and health. Can pictures, music and stories made by AI make people feel better, or worse? Can AI help in music therapy and art therapy? And can AI help researchers learn new things about health?

This work package investigates how creative content made by AI, such as images, music, literature and media, affects people’s health and well-being. It also looks at AI in the creative arts therapies, where art, music and movement are used to support mental and physical health, and at how new research methods that involve AI can produce new knowledge about health.

This WP investigates how AI-generated creative content (images, music, literature, media, etc.) impacts human health and well-being. It also examines the use of AI in creative arts therapies to promote mental health and physical well-being and how novel health research methods involving AI can enable new knowledge generation.

Description

Making things is good for people. AI tools can help people be creative, but they can also get in the way of what makes us human, like caring for each other and deciding for ourselves. We want to find out when AI helps and when it harms.

We take ethics seriously. AI must not make life harder for people who already have a hard time. We work with users, with patients and with people with disabilities, so that what we build is fair, useful and open to everyone.

Taking part in a creative process can support health and well-being. AI tools open new ways to extend human creativity, but they also raise the worry that human qualities such as empathy and autonomy lose value. The work package explores how AI can both support and challenge well-being, creativity and emotional expression.

Ethics is at the centre, and in particular how AI can be used responsibly without reinforcing inequality or bias. The approach is anti-oppressive: it seeks to support groups that have been marginalised, through inclusive uses of AI in the arts, and it brings critical disability perspectives in so that AI in the arts for health is accessible to all. Users and other stakeholders are partners in the work, so that health-promoting uses of AI are both relevant and ethically sound.

Engaging in creative processes can promote health and well-being. AI tools offer opportunities for augmenting human creativity, yet their use also raises concerns about the potential devaluation of human qualities like empathy and autonomy. We will explore how AI can both support and create challenges for well-being, creativity, and emotional expression.

Ethical considerations are central to this WP, especially how AI can be used responsibly to avoid reinforcing inequalities or biases. Our approach emphasises anti-oppressive practices and seeks to support historically marginalised groups through inclusive AI applications in the arts. Collaboration with users and stakeholders is key to creating innovative solutions while ensuring health-promoting AI interventions are relevant and ethically sound. Critical disability perspectives are incorporated to ensure that AI systems in arts for health are inclusive and accessible for all.

Research Questions

How do people feel about pictures, music and stories made by AI?
Can AI help people feel better, and help therapy work?
What can AI add to health research that uses art and music?
How do we protect consent, fairness and justice when AI is used in health care?

RQ3.1: How do people perceive, experience and relate to creative content made by AI?
RQ3.2: How can creative AI systems improve emotional well-being and support the outcomes therapy aims for?
RQ3.3: What can AI offer to research on mental and physical health that draws on the creative arts?
RQ3.4: How are consent, equity and justice safeguarded when AI becomes part of creative processes in health settings?

RQ3.1: How do humans perceive, experience and relate to AI-generated creative content?
RQ3.2: How can Creative AI systems enhance emotional well-being and facilitate therapeutic outcomes?
RQ3.3: What can AI offer research in mental and physical health that incorporates the creative arts?
RQ3.4: How are aspects of consent, equity and justice safeguarded when AI is integrated into creative processes in health contexts?

Approaches

CREATE: clear rules and safety nets for using AI in art and health, made together with the people who use them.
EXPLORE: how AI-made content and interactive AI change how people feel and act.
REFLECT: on what AI in creative work can do for health, and what it can do to it.

CREATE: frameworks and guidelines, developed with users and open to revision, for bringing AI into the arts for health and well-being in a way that includes people with disabilities and fails safely.
EXPLORE: how content made by AI and interactive AI systems affect human behaviour and emotion.
REFLECT: on the benefits and the risks to health and well-being of bringing AI into creative processes.

CREATE: reflexive and user-informed “failsafe” frameworks and guidelines for disability-inclusive integration of AI into the arts for health and well-being.
EXPLORE: how AI-generated content and interactive AI systems affect human behaviour and emotions.
REFLECT: on the benefits and risks to human health and well-being of integrating AI into creative processes.

Sustainability

This work helps with two of the United Nations’ goals for a better world. Knowing how people react to AI in health care, and having good rules for using it in therapy, supports good health (SDG 3). Including people with disabilities from the start keeps the work from leaving anyone behind (SDG 10).

The centre’s other commitments on sustainability, openness and reuse are on the open research page.

This work package contributes to two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Knowledge about how people perceive AI in health settings, and guidelines for using it in therapy, serve health and well-being (SDG 3), and a disability-inclusive approach is what keeps that work from widening the gap it means to close (SDG 10).

The centre’s other commitments on sustainability, openness and reuse are on the open research page.