Chatbots

History

The idea of artificial intelligence stems from the study of mathematical logic and philosophy. The first theory that suggests a machine can simulate any kind of formal reasoning is the Church-Turing thesis, proposed by Alonzo Church and Alan Turing. Since the 1950s, AI researchers explored the idea that any human cognition can be reduced to algorithmic reasoning, and had based research in two main directions. The first is creating artificial neural networks, systems that model the biological brain. The second is developing symbolic AI (also known as GOFAI) systems that are based on human-readable representations of problems solved by logic programming from the 1950s to the 1990s, before shifting into focus on subsymbolic AI due to technical limitations.

The first documented use of artificial intelligence in psychotherapy is the chatbot ELIZA, developed from 1964 to 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum. Eliza is created to be a pseudo therapist that simulates human conversations. ELIZA was written in SLIP and trained on primarily the DOCTOR script that simulated interactions Carl Rogers has with his patients — notably repeating what the patient has said back at them. While ELIZA had been primarily developed to highlight the superficial interactions between AI and humans and was not aimed to perform recommendations to patients, Weizenbaum observed that many did believe the robot understood them. Subsequent chatbots, such as PARRY, simulating a patient with natural schizophrenia, are also successful. Computer-to-computer therapeutic interactions were also observed, with ELIZA acting as a therapist to PARRY.

In the 1980s, psychotherapists started to investigate the usage of artificial intelligence clinically, primarily highlighting the possibilities of using logic based programming in quick intervention methods, such as in brief cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT). This kind of therapy does not focus on the underlying causes of mental health ailments, rather, it triggers and supports a change in behavior and cognitive distortions. However, technical limitations such as the lack of sophisticated and development of logical systems, and the lack of breakthrough in artificial intelligence technology, as well as the decrease in funding in AI technology by the Strategic Computing Initiative had led research in this field to stagnate until the mid 1990s when the internet became accessible to the general public.

Currently, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly widespread in psychotherapy, with developments focusing on data logging and building mental models of patients.