A Much
Abridged History of Computer Therapy
by Karl Ericson
The idea of a computer aided psychotherapy has been around for a long time. The challenge of making an effective good computer psychotherapist is a formidable one because there are so many different problems that people have to talk about and the author of the therapy program can't possibly anticipate them all. The first therapy program or at least the first one that achieved publicity was called ELIZA. More programs of this type are listed at www.botspot.com. The Thinking Software company has developed programs called PC Therapist, PC Politician and so on. Their approach has been more to develop fun programs. On the other hand their PC therapist was the first program to win the Turing test by convincing 5 out of 10 judges that it was a human being and not a computer program.
ChatGPT ia an amazing artificial intelligence program. I tried using it as a therapist and am very impressed. I wrote the rest of this page many years ago. Many of the links no longer exist however I am keeping the text the way it was as a historical record.
Dr. Julian Simon, Dr. Kenneth Colby and Peter Colby developed a serious self help program that came free with the purchase of Julian Simon's book Good Mood: the New Psychology of Overcoming Depression. The Colbys founded a company called Malibu Artificial Intelligence Works and have continued development of their software. They give an example of dialog that a patient had with their program. Simple computer aided cognitive therapy exercises can be found at http://www.htmlempire.com/formsct/formsct.html.
A chat box is being developed to help smokers quit (NewScientistTech 5/25/2006). Virtual coaches have a good track record. Frequent conversations with the chatbot Laura, the brainchild of Timothy Bickmore at Northeastern University in Boston, helped to persuade a group of elderly people to exercise more (New Scientist, 3 December 2005, p 42).
I have been working for many years on a program I call Computer Aided Self Help. There are times when it runs and is totally off base and there are times where friends of mine have sat down and had therapeutic conversations with it. It has been exciting to watch. A friend once called me and told me how he had been thinking about what my program had said to him and thought it was right. That was a real triumph. My motivation to continue also has been increased by the help the program has given me on occasion.
Web sites with Psych Software are:
Inner Peace (Christian self help software)
The Mind Media Life Enhancement Network
Multimedia software for cognitive therapy
ChatGPT is software that does practically everything including therapy
Interesting Artificial Intelligence Software
Leo the language learning chatterbot
The Personality Forge: Make your own chatterbot
Artificial Intelligence
Archbot A Chatterbox Building Architecture
Chatterbots, Tinymuds and the Turing Test
Online Therapy with a Therapist
http://www.ETherapistsOnline.com
c o p y r i g h t ( c ) 1 9 9 9 - 2004 Karl Ericson Enterprises. All rights reserved