The Yale Department of Psychiatry’s Law & Psychiatry Division sponsored a symposium titled, “AI and Violence: Exploring the Clinical, Legal, and Ethical Frontiers” on April 10.
The Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Samuel & Kathryn Yochelson Family also co-sponsored the event. Approximately 160 people attended the symposium, both in person and virtually.
Three invited speakers, each with expertise in mental illness, violence, and artificial intelligence (AI), gave keynote addresses at the day-long symposium.
Attorney Meetali Jain, founding director of the Tech Justice Law Project, described the early stages of litigation against AI chatbot manufacturers, attempting to hold them liable for acts of violence facilitated or encouraged by chatbots.
Kaylee Williams, a journalist and PhD candidate at Columbia University, shared her research on AI "undressing," or "nudification," apps and their role in perpetrating gender-based violence.
Richard Cockerill, a forensic psychiatrist in Chicago, described the risks and benefits of utilizing AI in psychiatric care, including violence and suicide risk assessment.
The Law & Psychiatry Division awarded the annual Howard Zonana Prize at the pre-symposium dinner on April 9. This award is given annually to an alumnus of the Yale forensic psychiatry fellowship who has made important contributions to education, research, and clinical care in the tradition of division founder Howard Zonana, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry.
The 2026 recipient was Vlad Coric, MD, chairman and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Biohaven.