A Note From The CAI Co-Chairs

by Todd Essig, PhD and Amy Levy, PsyD

We come to this issue with both very good, and very sad, news. Let’s begin with the positive. We’ve been renamed! Still the CAI, we are now the APsA Presidential Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Our new name references a pair of profoundly important developments.

Previously, we were a council in the Department of Education (DPE). No longer. We want to express our appreciation to Wendy Jacobson, James Barron, and Paula Christian-Kliger for their leadership and vision in helping launch and develop the CAI. On behalf of our entire community, we thank you.

Of course, education will still be central to our mission—how could it not be? But APsA has recognized that the accelerating emergence of the AI age is relevant to all areas of psychoanalytic life and all sectors of APsA. As Dan Prezant, APsA’s President, put it: “The renaming and repositioning of the CAI as the President’s Commission reflects APsA’s recognition that artificial intelligence is no longer a peripheral concern—it is central to the future of psychoanalysis. We want to support visionary, responsive leadership that can educate, advise, and collaborate across the organization.”

We agree. Organization-wide mobilization is what the moment demands. While it may not have the felt immediacy of COVID 19 responses, it is no less urgent. APsA is once again stepping up to meet the moment. We are humbled by the organizational responsibilities in front of us. But an organizational response is just part of what the moment demands. The other part is you and your colleagues, teachers, and students. We need to be in this together.

In his recent article, “Warning: AI chatbots will soon dominate psychotherapy” published 8/20/25 in the British Journal of Psychiatry, Allen Francis bemoaned both organizational and individual complacency. He wrote “Psychotherapy practitioners and associations are curiously complacent about the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence competition. Their passivity reflects ignorance about the power of chatbots, denial of their likely impact and arrogance regarding their capacities (e.g. ‘no machine will ever replace me’).”

While he wasn’t speaking about APsA—we are hardly complacent— his point remains valuable because he included both organizations and individuals. He concludes, “(o)ur best hope is in unity. Professional organisations and training programmes across disciplines and orientations should come together with one voice to alert psychotherapists and the larger society that artificial intelligence poses great dangers and must be much better regulated. We must advocate strongly for artificial intelligence transparency, privacy protections and safety surveillance. The stakes are high for our patients, our profession and our society.”

Again, we agree, bringing us to the other development we want to share; our new expanded mission. We see ourselves engaged in two tasks. The first is what we’re calling “activation.” Unlike Francis’ finger-wagging criticism, we understand the intersections of AI and psychoanalysis is an anxious-making, scary, frequently unexplored territory. Part of our new efforts will be directed towards making it easier to do what needs to be done. We will continue bringing you thoughtful pieces of writing in The CAI Report, illuminating as well as educational workshops, and informative news dispatches. These efforts aim to shine light on the emerging AI Age, revealing it as yes, a threat, but also more manageable than we may have feared, and even kind of interesting to think about and understand. Plus, opportunities, however hidden, abound.

The second part of our new expanded mission will be “needs-based projects.” Once activated and engaged in seeing more deeply both the problems and the opportunities of the emerging AI Age there’s the question of what to do. We will endeavor to help solve problems and take advantage of opportunities with new peer groups, curriculum templates, and academic usage guidelines to name but a few of the projects we have under development.

And, now, with heavy hearts, we turn to the bad news. Dr. Robert Hsiung, a dear and enthusiastic member of the CAI unexpectedly passed away on August 31, 2025. His loss comes as a tremendous shock to all of us within the CAI who knew “Dr. Bob” (as he was affectionately known) from his sensitive, probing, and full participation in CAI meetings, reading groups, and of course his writings for The CAI Report. It is a blow which will take our community some time to accept, let alone process. Robert Hsiung was a firm believer in engaging with the AI revolution, its troubling dimensions, as well as the philosophical and ethical questions AI entities raise for humankind. In the near future, the CAI will delve more fully into his contributions and our remembrances.

But for now, maintaining the spirit of inquiry and activism that Dr. Bob so fiercely supported, we assert that our AI future is not yet written and we have both a responsibility and an opportunity to participate in its authorship. The CAI’s new position in APsA will help us meet that challenge. And we hope you’ll join us, today, as, sadly, time is always too short.