Researchers from Northern Arizona University want to see if an AI chatbot can be used for health coaching with students.
NAU currently provides health coaching through its UCAN program, which specializes in providing motivational interviewing, a method that involves having conversations to bring about a change in someone.
The researchers are building an AI chatbot that follows UCAN protocols. They’ll then use it to study the biophysiological responses of students coached by the chatbot.
Natalie Papini is with the university’s Department of Health Sciences.
“We were interested in looking at differences between human to human interaction and human to chat bot interaction, knowing that chat bots have really sort of proliferated in recent years," she said.
Papinini says that the team does not want to put students using the chatbot at risk and says the chatbot is not meant to replace human coaches.
Buck Blankenship is with the university's College of Education.
“The chatbot that's being developed is also rooted in the same protocol that the students use peer-to-peer," he said.
Blankenship says the team plans to gather data from students interacting with the chatbot through the fall and spring semesters.
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