Depression is a silent killer. A.I. is turning up the volume. | Eric Topol

- Artificial intelligence can digitize a person's state of mind by gathering data from their social media feeds and listening to them talk. - The filters you use on photos, the kinds of content you post, as well as your speech (your tone, sighs, and rate of speech) are just a few ways AI can detect depression or evaluate whether medications are working or not. - Furthermore, research shows people would rather confide their deepest feelings to an avatar than a human being. AI mental health coaches are already on the horizon – an effective and necessary development as we face a shortage of mental health professionals. Eric Topol, a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps, is an executive vice president at Scripps Research and the founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute (previously Scripps Translational Science Institute). His work melds genomics, big data, and both information technologies and digital health technologies to advance the promise of personalized medicine. He is the author of Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again (https://amzn.to/2DQ1xmX) Read more at BigThink.com: http://bit.ly/2DRhNV0 Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: http://bit.ly/1qJMX5g Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink