Virtual Agents for Alcohol Use Counseling: Exploring LLM-Powered Motivational Interviewing

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Steenstra, Ian, Nouraei, Farnaz, Arjmand, Mehdi, Bickmore, Timothy W.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916319893389312
author Steenstra, Ian
Nouraei, Farnaz
Arjmand, Mehdi
Bickmore, Timothy W.
author_facet Steenstra, Ian
Nouraei, Farnaz
Arjmand, Mehdi
Bickmore, Timothy W.
contents We introduce a novel application of large language models (LLMs) in developing a virtual counselor capable of conducting motivational interviewing (MI) for alcohol use counseling. Access to effective counseling remains limited, particularly for substance abuse, and virtual agents offer a promising solution by leveraging LLM capabilities to simulate nuanced communication techniques inherent in MI. Our approach combines prompt engineering and integration into a user-friendly virtual platform to facilitate realistic, empathetic interactions. We evaluate the effectiveness of our virtual agent through a series of studies focusing on replicating MI techniques and human counselor dialog. Initial findings suggest that our LLM-powered virtual agent matches human counselors' empathetic and adaptive conversational skills, presenting a significant step forward in virtual health counseling and providing insights into the design and implementation of LLM-based therapeutic interactions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_08095
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Virtual Agents for Alcohol Use Counseling: Exploring LLM-Powered Motivational Interviewing
Steenstra, Ian
Nouraei, Farnaz
Arjmand, Mehdi
Bickmore, Timothy W.
Human-Computer Interaction
Computation and Language
We introduce a novel application of large language models (LLMs) in developing a virtual counselor capable of conducting motivational interviewing (MI) for alcohol use counseling. Access to effective counseling remains limited, particularly for substance abuse, and virtual agents offer a promising solution by leveraging LLM capabilities to simulate nuanced communication techniques inherent in MI. Our approach combines prompt engineering and integration into a user-friendly virtual platform to facilitate realistic, empathetic interactions. We evaluate the effectiveness of our virtual agent through a series of studies focusing on replicating MI techniques and human counselor dialog. Initial findings suggest that our LLM-powered virtual agent matches human counselors' empathetic and adaptive conversational skills, presenting a significant step forward in virtual health counseling and providing insights into the design and implementation of LLM-based therapeutic interactions.
title Virtual Agents for Alcohol Use Counseling: Exploring LLM-Powered Motivational Interviewing
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.08095