About
The Mental Health AI Policy Project is an independent research and policy initiative working to ensure that state regulation of AI in mental health is grounded in evidence and developed in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders. We believe legislation governing AI in mental health should be grounded in empirical evidence, not driven by either reflexive prohibition or unchecked permissiveness.
Our work supports legislators, state staffers, clinicians, and developers navigating an increasingly fragmented regulatory landscape. We translate research into resources policymakers can actually use, and we advocate for frameworks that protect patients, clarify clinician liability, and allow beneficial innovation to proceed responsibly.
Founder
Abir Aldhalimi, PhD, founded the Mental Health AI Policy Project. She is a Yale- and Stanford-trained clinical psychologist, a clinical instructor and researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, and the Chief Clinical Officer of a digital mental health company that supports children with disabilities and their families. She advises the Global AI Council on the safe and ethical use of AI.
Previously, she served as a senior mental health advisor at the US Agency for International Development, where she led global mental health programming, and as a mental health advisor through the American Association for the Advancement of Science fellowship in US Senator Maggie Hassan's office.
Our independence
The Mental Health AI Policy Project is independently governed. Our research and recommendations reflect the evidence base, not the interests of any individual funder. We do not accept funding tied to specific findings or recommendations. We publicly disclose our funders and publish our methodology and analyses. This transparency is foundational to the credibility of our work with legislators, regulators, and clinicians.
How we work
Researchers are generating evidence rapidly — on how people are using AI for mental health support, what helps, what harms, and for whom — but the distance between research and policy means much of it does not reach the legislators drafting bills or the regulators shaping rules.
We work to close that gap, alongside academics, clinicians, and patient advocates, so that mental health research and AI safety research can inform the laws that protect the people using these tools.
Our methods:
Get in touch
For media inquiries, partnership conversations, or to share state legislation we should be tracking, please reach out.
abir@mhaipolicy.org