A booming relationship?

 

It has been observed in recent years that the relationship between humans and AI is becoming more dynamic. This is especially evident in the field of psychology, which was considered to be more human-oriented and where the role of machines was not found. It has pushed the realms of technological advancement and helped us understand more about human cognition and behaviour and the relationship between them.This blog aims to explore the relationship that exists between AI and Psychology and how two different yet similar fields are seemingly coming closer to each other, such that they have been supporting each other.

The thoughts that exist about AI can be explained with the help of different 17th-century thinkers and philosophers like Leibniz, Descartes, and Hobbes, who took more of a mechanistic view of human beings, their actions, and thought processes, along with the principles of coexistence. This led to the idea that human intelligence and behaviour are based on some fixed rules and can be stimulated with the help of machines and, later, artificial intelligence. When Psychology emerged as a science, there was a lot of research conducted about human experience, behaviour, learning, and the brain. The Dartmouth conference in 1956, researchers from various different fields like Psychology, mathematics, computer science, philosophy, etc. came forward and built a machine that could stimulate various aspects of human behaviour.

 

Despite all this evidence, we can see that the relationship between psychology and AI is heavily one-sided. The research units of AI, for example, were running parallel to those of the research units of Psychology. There were some instances of overlap, though, between computer science and psychology, like, for example, differential psychology, which has always used statistical methods to explain the differences in traits. Language is also something that occupies a central place in both AI and Psychology. Behaviourists tend to see language as a behaviour, just like how it has been influenced by reactions from the environment. Cognitive Psychology tends to see additional influences on feelings, beliefs, states, and innate tendencies. 

Apart from this, we can see that there is a sudden rise in chatbots, which claim to be the future of therapy. They are evolving tools of communication where there is a perfect combination of language and technology. The idea of chatbots dates back to the 1960s, when it started off with a chatbot named Eliza, which was based on mimicking a psychologist. Based on this chatbot, there were different types of chatbots that were developed later on, like the most recent one, Chatgpt. There are specially designed chatbots for therapeutic purposes, which are called therapy chatbots. They are conversational AI-powered chatbots that can help mental health patients. They tend to serve as a preliminary point of contact for those who are suffering from different mental health problems. Chatbots tend to work more using the principle of CBT (Cognitive behavioural therapy), which involves the identification of different erroneous and maladaptive thinking patterns, emotional patterns, and behaviours that can be replaced with their beneficial counterparts. These chatbots tend to help clients with different problems, like depression, anxiety, etc. Some of the chatbots that are specifically used for therapeutic purposes are Moodkit, Youper, Woebot, etc.

 

They tend to provide a safe space where individuals can express themselves and receive support without any kind of judgement, just like a real-life therapist. On the other hand, we can see that there are a lot of disadvantages resulting from these chatbots, like limited empathy and lower levels of efficacy. There are various studies that suggest that these chatbots receive very little funding from the companies that created them.

Also, one thing that has to be noted about them is that these chatbots are in their initial stages of development. This means that they can only handle some basic questions and cannot provide the human touch and connection that are usually given by a real-life therapist. There is also a risk that these chatbots might be taken advantage of by some malicious actors, and the users could be exposed to some malicious content as well.

References :

1. Advantages / Limitations

2. AI chatbots & Mental health

3. Future of chatbots & mental health

4. History of psychology & AI

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