The Missing Discipline in AI

In a recent open letter published in Wellcome Open Research, a group of behavioral science and AI researchers argues that behavioral science must be treated as a core component of responsible AI development, not an optional add-on.

The authors’ central argument is straightforward: AI systems do more than complete tasks. “They influence how people interpret information, make decisions, regulate emotions, and form habits over time,” the letter explains. Yet most efforts to make AI safe focus on technical accuracy, bias, and security. The behavioral impacts of repeated human-AI interaction remain largely unevaluated and ungoverned, they lament.

The risks they identify are specific. AI systems can encourage overreliance, undermine confidence, distort decision-making, and discourage appropriate help-seeking, even when technically accurate. Well-documented mechanisms, including automation bias, anthropomorphism, and emotional dependency, amplify these effects. They are most pronounced in high-impact domains such as healthcare, education, and social support, where people interact with AI systems repeatedly and place significant trust in their guidance.

The authors make five practical recommendations: treat behavioural impact as a core evaluation requirement; embed behavioural scientists across the AI lifecycle; fund behavioural evaluation explicitly; develop shared benchmarks; and support interdisciplinary collaboration as a routine component of responsible AI practice.

“Treating behavioural considerations as core infrastructure, rather than as an optional or downstream concern, supports the development of AI systems that are safer, more trustworthy, and more effective in real-world settings,” they conclude. "Embedding behavioural expertise and behavioural evaluation early is likely to be more effective, and less costly, than responding to harm after deployment."

Among the authors of the piece is Antoine Ferrère, President of the Behavioral AI Institute and founder of LumenX. In Starling’s 2023 Compendium, Ferrère wrote about the efforts he led at Novartis to assess and improve the pharmaceutical company's organizational culture utilizing behavioral science. ▸ Read More