Trustworthy artificial intelligence for rural health care

Regional, rural and remote Australians experience poorer health outcomes and substantially higher rates of suicide and self-harm than those in major cities. Artificial intelligence could support earlier identification of distress, safer triage and more timely care alongside telehealth and clinical decision support, but only if it is treated as a health intervention with explicit safety nets and independent evaluation. We propose a minimum viable governance model, including Indigenous partnership, language safety, translational evaluation and post-deployment monitoring, to ensure AI reduces, rather than deepens, rural mental health inequity.