Why Ethical AI in Behavioral Health Matters: Building Trust Where it Matters Most
Three Points to Remember
- AI in behavioral health must be ethical, not experimental.
- Trusted AI enhances care without replacing clinicians.
- Ethics must be engineered into AI from start to finish.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the future of healthcare. In behavioral health, where care is as personal as it is vital, AI’s promise must be realized responsibly. Our earlier article, AI as a Force Multiplier in Behavioral Health, explored how technology can expand access and ease clinical workloads. Now we will explore the next essential step of making sure AI is used ethically – because in healthcare, innovation without safeguards is not an option.
AI has potential to improve outcomes for patients, families, and providers, but not at the expense of safety. Recent reports of young people turning to unregulated AI chatbots for mental health support and receiving harmful guidance highlight the critical truth that behavioral health is too important for trial and error.
Turning promise into practice
With decades of behavioral health experience across military and government health programs, Leidos is committed to building solutions with AI that is trusted, ethical, and designed to enhance – not replace – care. By combining innovation with safeguards under our legacy as one of the world’s most ethical companies, Leidos is helping AI fulfil its promise to improve human well-being and mission readiness.
These advances demonstrate what's possible when innovation and ethics move in lockstep:
- Streamlined case documentation that give clinicians more time with patients
- Predictive insights that help identify at-risk populations earlier
- Secure data environments that protect patient privacy while enabling collaboration
Leidos believes AI should support care, not replace people. Our trusted AI approach is built on four principles:
- Responsible: We test our solutions for bias and ensure they are overseen by licensed professionals.
- Resilient: We rigorously test our systems to prevent misuse and data drift.
- Explainable: We design our recommendations to be transparent so clinicians and patients can understand how decisions are made.
- Secure: We build on Leidos’ proven cybersecurity expertise to safeguard health data.
Ethics in action: building AI you can trust
At Leidos, ethical AI isn’t a tagline — it’s an engineering principle. Every system we develop is guided by clinical expertise, rigorous testing, and human oversight. Our approach is anchored in two operational frameworks that turn responsible intent into measurable action:
- Framework for AI Resilience and Security (FAIRS): Ensures fairness, accountability, integrity, and resilience in AI models, guarding against bias, drift, and misuse.
- Augment, Automate, Adapt, Assure (4A): A lifecycle model that ensures AI supports clinicians rather than replaces them, adapts to evolving standards of care, and is continuously assured for safety and reliability.
Together, FAIRS and 4A shape systems that are transparent, auditable, and resilient — designed to support care teams while preserving patient trust.
What trusted AI looks like
Trusted AI means systems that are secure, auditable, resilient, and human-centered. In defense applications, it powers mission success. In behavioral health, it means care is safe, equitable, and clinically sound.
At Leidos, innovation and ethics are inseparable. Trusted AI means empowering clinicians to focus where they’re needed most—on people. It can shorten the distance between diagnosis and treatment, expand access in rural communities, and give providers real-time tools to detect early signs of crisis. These are measurable outcomes with human impact.
The future of behavioral health with AI
AI has the potential to help people who need it most. With the right safeguards, it can extend care to those who need it most while giving clinicians back time to focus on healing.
Leidos isn’t just experimenting with AI, we are shaping it responsibly. For military and Veteran care, our commitment is clear: we’re building AI that will help heal, protect, and earn trust every step of the way.
Ethical AI requires collaboration across technology, clinical, and policy sectors. We invite partners to join us in setting the standard, supporting AI’s goal of delivering results safely, responsibly, and for all.
