SEATTLE — From ChatGPT to AI-generated images, artificial intelligence is in the limelight.
But what about using AI as a therapist?
Tim Althoff, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Washington, believes the technology is there to get things started.
"I believe that that technology is now at a point where it can start to actually be useful to people in a mental health context, especially focused on a kind of collaboration between people and AI," Althoff said.
Althoff and a team of researchers have been developing AI programs as a form of behavioral health therapy, but they are by no means the typical chatbots.
One of Althoff's projects uses AI to help professional, human therapists be more empathetic in their interactions with clients.
"Essentially what we called empathic rewriting," said Dr. Dave Atkins, a research professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Atkins has also worked with the Behavioral Research in Technology and Engineering (BRiTE) Center at the University of Washington and is CEO of Lyssn.
Atkins worked with Althoff on how AI can be used in behavioral health conversations. Using language models, the AI provides suggestions for human-to-human chat interactions to be more empathetic.
"So that when someone is ready to send a message, you can get feedback from the AI and how to update, edit that message so that it's more empathic," Atkins said.
But one of Althoff's recent projects is an AI platform that interacts directly with the user to reframe negative thinking.
"We co-developed this tool that essentially walks you through a process where you learn how to challenge negative thoughts," Althoff said.
Theresa Nguyen is chief research officer at Mental Health America, the nonprofit advocacy group that collaborated with Althoff's research project. She considers it as another self-help tool.
"The idea is we can change our feelings, or we can change our behaviors by first focusing on our thoughts. And so once you start with that negative thought, you learn your patterns of how your thinking causes trouble for you," Nguyen said.
Althoff points out the technology is not intended to replace professional therapists.
"I think one important point is that it actually does not try to do that," Althoff said.
Althoff emphasized it is an online tool that gives the user suggestions to get away from negative thinking. The tool is currently available for anyone to try out.
The interaction is similar to a Q&A that provides guidance for ways to get out of negative thinking.
Althoff said such tools could be helpful in filling a gap.
"Even if an AI system could replace a therapist, that therapist most of the time doesn't even exist because that person didn't have access to somebody in the first place," Althoff said.
Nguyen added tools like these can provide a mental health resource for those who lack access or money to receive professional mental health treatment.
"It's dearly needed with kind of AI technology being one part, kind of piece, of that puzzle," Nguyen said.