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from the spend-your-whole-life-without-meeting-another-human dept.
I'm about to start a session with Woebot, billed as the first chatbot clinically shown to improve symptoms of depression and anxiety. And I'm skeptical. Chatbots do everything these days, from helping people manage bank accounts and practice language skills to keeping them company when they can't sleep. But can an AI really get into my head the way a therapist would?
Turns out Woebot, created by a Stanford University psychologist, is more about getting me into my own head -- and teaching me to better manage the chatter in there. Using brief daily conversations, mood tracking, curated videos and word games, the new bot relies on principles of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a short-term, goal-oriented treatment that aims to rewire the thoughts that negatively affect how we feel.
[...] A few brief exchanges in, and it's clear Woebot's been programmed to be approachable and playful, charming even. At times it's even easy to forget Woebot's a robot as it asks questions about my mood and energy level and cheerfully points me to a YouTube video on the power of positive self-talk.
I'm not alone in liking Woebot's tone. Participants in the Stanford study described Woebot as "a friend" and a "fun little dude."
Woebot, however, stresses early in our first chat that it's a robot that can't, and shouldn't, replace a human. It also tells users that if they're in crisis, they can type "SOS" at any time to get a list of resources, and includes a reminder about calling 911 (112 in Europe) if things get really bad.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mth on Thursday June 08 2017, @12:34PM (2 children)
Rubber duck debugging [wikipedia.org] works, but not because rubber ducks have any particular insight into programming. Just the process of explaining a problem can sometimes help solve it.
(Score: 2, Troll) by OrugTor on Thursday June 08 2017, @01:53PM
Thank you, that needed to be said. The power of the therapist derives from its position in the mind of the patient as a neutral authority figure. People will do what the therapsist says even though it's the same thing their partners have been telling them for years. The therapist's neutrality makes it a good rubber duck even though it still brings in human bias.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @05:45PM
Yes but it depends [dilbert.com] on what are you talking to.