Will AI lifestyle trainers render therapists obsolete?
Sunday, May 22, 2023.
Here is an interesting development…using an AI chatbot on a phone is like having a life style trainer in your pocket, available 24/7.
AI chatbots can help coach people of all ages to improve their diet, sleep and physical activity, a review of the research finds.
People using chatbots — also becoming known as virtual assistants, and also as conversational agents. These chatbots can introduce meaningful, real time interventions that can help us eat better, exercise, meditate, and improve sleep hygiene.
New research is explaining how AI chatbots can help guide humans to healthier minds, bodies and souls.
What is an AI chatbot? And why should I care?
At this point, AI chatbots are usually smartphone apps that can engage with humans and talk them talk through the essential elements of making meaningful lifestyle changes.
Humans interact have with the AI by texting their questions into the phone. It feels similar to text messaging a friend. But your counterpart is a powerful artificial intelligence.
The AI will typically:
First provide all the introductory medical or psycho-education, establishing a strategy to achieve pre-determined goals. Conversational agents can create a treatment plan, establish the benchmarks for goals, as well as adjust to and monitor new data along the way.
An AI chatbot can remind humans to check-in, just like a real live therapist.
How far can we take this? Imagine that your phone rings, a voice inquires into your emotional state and offers soothing validation.
Chatbots excel at answering questions. For example, people might want to know what they can and cannot eat on a diet or how to overcome obstacles to their goals.
The AI engages just like a natural human, the bot responds to humans pretty much like another human.
The feeling you wind up getting is that it’s like having a lifestyle trainer in your pocket, available 24/7.
Dr. Ben Singh, the study’s first author, said:
“For health, this capability presents tremendous opportunities for chatbots to promote effective interventions that support wellbeing and a healthy lifestyle.
Their appeal lies in the way that they can generate immediate, appealing, and personalized responses, which prompt users to make better decisions about their everyday movement, eating habits and sleep.”
Text-based bots work well for all demographics
This was a very serious and detailed review of 19 separate studies. What these studies all had in common was their focus on helping humans to increase their physical activity.
The first thing the researchers wanted to establish was what is there preferred modality for delivering AI; voice or text?
Dr. Singh explained:
“Interestingly, we found that text-based chatbots are more effective than speech or voice-based AI, which suggests that, at least for the time being, text-based communication is more conducive to achieving positive outcomes in health-related interventions.
Our study found chatbots were effective across different age groups, dispelling the notion that they are useful only for younger, tech-savvy users.”
Using chatbots led to people in the study to improve their physical activity by averaging per day:
They took 735 more steps.
And mindfully consumed additional servings of both fruit and vegetables.
And enjoyed 45 minutes of additional sleep time.
AI + human coaching
Study co-author, Professor Carol Maher, is not convinced that the human element of coaching can be dispensed with, although chatbots have considerable advantages:
“Chatbots offer personalised and interactive lifestyle support, that may be more engaging and meaningful to users than other tech-based lifestyle tools.
They adapt to individual user’s needs, tailoring their advice based on the user’s responses, habits and preferences.
The level of personalization may lead to more effective motivation and advice.”
A blended approach is currently best since chatbots can still give incorrect advice, said Professor Maher:
“This field of research is young, and there is potential for chatbots to give inappropriate advice.
For now, using chatbots to supplement human coaching, could be the best solution, offering the best of both worlds — retaining the unique value of a human coach, combined with round-the-clock support from a chatbot.”
Final Thoughts…
If we approach the notion of creating an artificial form of intelligence with the attitude of pushing it to the limit, some folks think we’ll self destruct.
But I think that we’re smart enough to develop feelings of disgust and discomfort when the use of AI transgresses on a human purview. I think that’s already beginning to sort itself out.
But as a pseudo-omniscient sidekick? Why the hell not?
Be well, gentle reader, live strong, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Ben Singh, Timothy Olds, Jacinta Brinsley, Dot Dumuid, Rosa Virgara, Lisa Matricciani, Amanda Watson, Kimberley Szeto, Emily Eglitis, Aaron Miatke, Catherine E. M. Simpson, Corneel Vandelanotte, Carol Maher. Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of chatbots on lifestyle behaviours. npj Digital Medicine, 2023; 6 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41746-023-00856-1
University of South Australia. (2023, August 7). Out with the life coach, in with the chatbot. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 22, 2023 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230807121944.htm
