BluBot

Overview

A PUBLIC INTERVENTION

Your AI Therapist Will See You Now

BluBot was a public experience that took place on Sunday, March 24, 2019 in Union Square Park in Manhattan. Each participant who entered the BluBot booth had five minutes of “AI-powered therapy,” guided by BluBot’s questions and prompts. In two hours, we engaged twenty participants in 5-minute AI therapy sessions, in which they trusted BluBot enough to share personal stories about mental health struggles, family conflict, and drug addiction.

This experiences explores an imagined use case of AI as a vehicle to make human beings feel that they can be more emotionally honest and vulnerable within the context of psychotherapy. As a tool in psychotherapy, AI can be used to mitigate human judgment, ask questions that a conventional human therapist would not be able to ask, and increase access to mental health services.

UNDERSTANDING THE LANDSCAPE

Current State of Mental Health in America

The National Institute of Health (NIH) reports that 1 in 5 American adults struggle with mental illness in a given year; less than half receive any sort of mental health treatment. Psychotherapy, one of the most common treatments, is often inaccessible to many groups, due to economic and cultural barriers. It is a costly endeavor; in most areas of the U.S., patients can expect to pay $100 - $200 per session. Culturally, it is a practice that is shrouded in stigma—especially for communities of color.

EXPERIENCE STRATEGY

Who is BluBot?: Personality and Interaction

Stuff about BluBot’s personality and why. Design of the script.

CONVERSATION DESIGN

Building Trust and Playing the Role of BluBot

Given critical discussion about AI, data, and privacy in the media, it was initially hypothesized that people would be hesitant to share their personal experiences with BluBot. However, this public intervention proved otherwise; the majority of participants who conversed with BluBot were willing to talk about their stories and challenges. This initial behavioral prototype and two-hour experience, which engaged seventeen random participants, was an initial validation of proof of concept.

In order to create a relationship based on trust, BluBot was purposely scripted to ask a question at the beginning of the session to establish a level of vulnerability. BluBot let the participant know that as an AI therapist in training, it was not an expert. The participant had an opportunity to teach BluBot something right off the bat.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Prototyping Process and Technological Setup

The booth’s physical form was inspired by a photo booth, combined with a Catholic confessional booth, but more open and airy. It includes a curtain that the participant can draw open and closed—both for privacy and for ease of entry/exit, so that the user would have agency to leave whenever they wished.

A small-scale model was created to better understand the interior layout and materials needed. Next, the booth form was created out of 400 square feet of foam core and painted BluBot blue and branded accordingly. The interior design of the booth was simple. It included the screen of a responsive BluBot animation, a chair, and a few cozy touches.

While participants believed that BluBot was an actual AI, I created BluBot without writing a single line of code. The technological setup included an iPad, a responsive animation, laptop with Terminal running, a thorough script, and significant audio equipment.

Inside the booth, the participant would sit down and interact with BluBot using their voice, and BluBot would answer with its voice—similar to how users interact with Alexa’s voice UI today.

Behind the BluBot screen was a hidden section of the booth where I was sitting (think: where a priest sits in a confessional booth). The microphone that the participant spoke into was connected to headphones that I was wearing on the other side. BluBot’s voice was custom-selected voice available on Macbook, which played responses that were programmed in real-time through the built-in Terminal application.

CHALLENGES AND IMPLICATIONS

Human-Machine Communication and Connection

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