Your Facebook Messenger AI Therapist Will See You Now

Artificial intelligence bots can give y'all news, help you shop, and troubleshoot tech problems. But a new startup launching today on Facebook Messenger, Woebot, wants to go a bit deeper and act as a virtual therapist.

Woebot is the brainchild of Dr. Alison Darcy, an adjunct faculty member at Stanford's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. The Ireland native worked as a software programmer for an investment banking company in London before pursuing her PhD at University College Dublin, where her research centered on new mHealth applications and group cerebral behavioral therapy for those with chronic anorexia nervosa. PCMag spoke with Dr. Darcy recently well-nigh what to expect with Woebot.

Dr. Darcy, Woebot is not your grandparents' therapist with framed credentials on woodpanel walls and an expensive couch; its conversational mode is refreshingly modern.
That's deliberate. Nosotros want to create a dialogue that reflects the language users feel comfortable with while at the same time address what we think are some common fears around therapy.

Which is why, presumably, yous're launching Woebot on Facebook Messenger—considering that's where the immature people hang out?
Dr. Alison Darcy, an adjunct faculty member at Stanford's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sc Exactly. We built our paradigm inside Facebook, and it turns out that in early testing that was the nearly favorable aspect. The No. 1 rule of therapy is to come across people where they're at, just similar the No. ane rule of production development [is] become where your audience is. Having said that, equally a business, we are planning to build out native apps in the future to give users a selection of platforms in which to interact with Woebot.

We would be remiss if we didn't bespeak out privacy concerns on the Facebook platform, considering its business model is based on analyzing data to serve contextual ads, i.due east. it might be disconcerting for a user to be chatting with Woebot about binge triggers and see an advert pop upwardly for a pop loftier calorific snack?
It's a catchy subject to address but, safe to say, at Woebot, we take user privacy very seriously and, in our [terms and conditions], confirm that ALL conversations are completely anonymized from profiles and kept private. Having said that, of course, all Facebook users are subject to Facebook's rules and privacy regulations also.

Where did the inspiration for Woebot come up from?
When I was a software developer, creating decision back up software for investment bankers, my interest was sparked by the possibilities in text-based assistance programs and its affect to democratizing admission to just-in-time information. Afterward, during my PhD at Academy College, Dublin, and and so at Stanford, I started to wonder why we didn't accept the same level of digital sophistication in healthcare applications. Cerebral Behavioral Therapy (CBT) models are, like computer science principles, formulaic, rules-based, and follow distinct procedures—the ii work very well together.

And, of form people accept been anthropomorphizing bots since the 1960s, most notably with ELIZA, based on a Rogerian psychotherapist, which many people "treated" every bit human—thereby proving, in some small way, Alan Turing's Turing Examination)?
Woebot An empathy-based chat is helpful—no matter where information technology comes from—people want to be heard and understood. In fact nosotros have found that many of our users adopt to divulge stuff that's really hard to deal with to Woebot instead of speaking to a real person. I imagine information technology's because there'due south no fear of being judged. There's an understanding that information technology'southward a robot—the expectation is that it has perfect recall and doesn't heed being encumbered with painful information at 2 a.m., when one wouldn't want to call a therapist, even if he/she were available.

Without making likewise many sweeping assumptions effectually gender or ethnicity, in your trials, was Woebot more popular with certain sectors of society? The suicide stats amidst United states of america college students are distressing, for case.
Let'southward simply say there'southward a stigma in many cultures that have a relentless focus on success, and/or those that are uncomfortable with addressing mental health issues. Woebot also treats everyone the same way and doesn't have unconscious bias around gender, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation, which is a relief for our users. So far, we've seen that many of our most frequent users are male, though Woebot is built for everyone. Woebot is needed to provide the stigma-gratis environs for people to talk candidly well-nigh their feelings.

Quick case study scenario for you: Mike, 20, comp-sci major facing final exams and going into a panic spiral showing suicidal ideation. How volition Woebot handle this situation?
Woebot deals with crisis actually well. There are iii clinically accustomed levels of care in dealing with people in crisis: providing resources, contracting for a suicide prevention programme with a therapist, and then hospitalization. Woebot is function of the first level, and we tell people in the onboarding that we're not able to provide the concluding two levels of care. Nosotros tell users "If yous're stuck at anytime type 'SOS' and we'll give you some resources—including suicide prevention helplines and/or suggest 911."

So what does Woebot tell 'Mike' to do for level ane care in this scenario?
It'll exist something similar this:

Woebot: Hey Mike, what's up, buddy?

Mike: I'yard freaking out near an test tomorrow.

Woebot: I'1000 hither for y'all. Let'south have some fourth dimension to call back nigh this together OK?

Mike: OK.

Woebot: Do you have 10 minutes to work with me on this, Mike?

Mike: Yes.

Woebot: Great. Practice y'all feel the panic in your trunk (heart racing, sweaty palms, etc.) or is generally in your thoughts?

Mike: I'thou panicking!

Woebot: I can help. Exhale with me like this.

[Woebot sends an image of Woebot taking deep breaths, which activates Mike'south mirror neurons, and they tin count together. Woebot also sends a link to Marconi Matrimony'south "Weightless" video, a proven visual/aural relaxation asset used by many therapists.]

Woebot: How'due south your jiff now? Getting slower?

Mike: Yeah. I'm not so fracking scared now.

Woebot: Thanks for the Battlestar Galactica ref. You did neat piece of work tonight. Bank check in with me tomorrow, OK?

Mike: I will. Thanks.

Talk nigh the clinical research behind Woebot.
We recruited 70 individuals (average age: 22) from a university social media site. The participants all answered a clinical questionnaire and were and then randomized, and either offered xx sessions with a "text-based conversational amanuensis," aka: Woebot, within a 2-week menstruation, or were directed to the National Plant of Mental Health ebook Low in College Students to create a command group.

We institute that those in the Woebot group significantly reduced their symptoms of depression over the study period, while those in the Information Control group did not. But interestingly, participants referred to relationship factors a lot, from remarking that Woebot felt similar a friend, to feeling empathized with. From this nosotros concluded that conversational agents announced to be a feasible, engaging, and effective way to deliver Cerebral Behavioral Therapy. The results of the study revealed a statistically meaning reduction in anxiety and depression in simply two weeks. We're thrilled with that timeline, especially since traditional face-to-face therapy typically takes much longer to take an impact.

How much does Woebot price? And what's your funding situation?
We're seed funded now and open to looking at health-based incubators and/or other investment sources down the road. Woebot is direct-to-consumer and there are tiered pricing levels: either an annual contract, which costs $6 per calendar week, or—if you have delivery issues—$12 a week for a drop-in style session. Having said that, we provide the first 2 weeks for free.

That'due south a pretty reasonable fee structure.
We wanted to brand sure it'southward a existent business, and we know that when people invest in health, it's empowering and constructive for outcomes. But we're however at least 40 percent less than a regular insurance co-pay.

Finally, how does the A.I. magic work? Are you using keywords to generate responses? Is Woebot pulling from previous conversations to show learning? Did you do a data dump from decades of anonymized patient-clinician sessions?
Did we railroad train a dataset on therapy sessions? No, Woebot was congenital from the ground upwards and draws on everything we know about stellar HCI [human-computer interaction] clinical conclusion making and human-centered software design. Our overall structure is based on a decision tree that mimics a complex clinical process with slots that use token/keyword trigger/matching in some places and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in others. Then there's automobile learning and optimization in later stages. Initially information technology's quite scripted to get the relationship going, getting smarter and more personalized over time.