Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
Publication Date
8-16-2024
Abstract
In many nations, demand for mental health services currently outstrips supply, especially in the area of talk-based psychological interventions. Within this context, chatbots (software applications designed to simulate conversations with human users) are increasingly explored as potential adjuncts to traditional mental healthcare service delivery with a view to improving accessibility and reducing waiting times. However, the effectiveness and acceptability of such chatbots remains under-researched. This study evaluates mental health professionals’ perceptions of Pi, a relational Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot, in the early stages of the psychotherapeutic process (problem exploration). We asked 63 therapists to assess therapy transcripts between a human client and Pi (human-AI) versus traditional therapy transcripts between therapists and clients (human-human). Therapists were unable to reliably discriminate between human-AI and human-human therapy transcripts. Therapists were accurate only 53.9% of the time, no better than chance, and rated the human-AI transcripts as higher quality on average. This study has potentially profound implications for the treatment of mental health problems, adding tentative support for the use of relational AI chatbots in providing initial assistance for mild to moderate psychological issues, especially when access to human therapists is constrained.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Disciplines
Computer Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences
Keywords
AI, Chatbots, counseling, therapy
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Kuhail, Mohammad Amin; Alturki, Nazik; Thomas, Justin; Alkhalifa, Amal K.; and Alshardan, Amal, "Human-Human vs Human-AI Therapy: An Empirical Study" (2024). All Works. 6792.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/6792
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Hybrid: This publication is openly available in a subscription-based journal/series