What is that one distinct image that we get when we hear the term artificial intelligence? It can be a futuristic utopian environment where everything and everyone is accustomed to the advanced technologies and a perfect tech-savvy world rises. Or AI can also mean the prominent science fiction setups, just like Jarvis and Oscorp tower from the Marvel universe and the Droids from Star War series. But the reality of the world of Artificial Intelligence is quite different from this progressive world of ours.
Although we have our upcoming technical advancements , artificial intelligence is still seeing the breaking lights of its dawn in this era of mechanisation.
Over the past decade machine learning and AI have undergone through impressionable upgradation and developments that have contributed in areas like automobiles and cryptocurrency. But artificial intelligence and machine learning have also set a benchmark in the field of medical health care too. Big firms like Google, Microsoft and IBM have projected an enormous amount of investment in the field of artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
AI is always been counted as an asset to healthcare. It performs the role of an extended helping arm and builds a new perspective in the domain of classified healthcare techniques. It has provided the doctors across the globe the ability to understand and diagnose a disease or ailment in a quicker and efficient manner. Though the techniques do not incorporate cost redundancy to much extent, but it still provides a newer technique for curing an ailment and simplifies the complex medical procedures.
Google is set to revolutionise the vision of computers , in which they have developed systems which have proficiently diagnosed diabetic eye.They have used computer-aided diagnostic screening for a disease of the eye called diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is the fastest growing cause of preventable blindness globally. Not just this , but Google and IBM have claimed to discovered diagnostics for detection of breast cancer in lymph node biopsy.
Progressive methods adopted by big firms ensures a development in the field of artificial intelligence.The most progress in research to date are ophthalmology ( study and treatment of disorders and diseases of the eye) and digital pathology, by Google. These initiates are seen as new and assistive methods in the field of Bioscience.
Advancements in Mental Healthcare
Moving on to the newer and more complex aspects of AI which is the application in the field of mental health. Unfortunately as complex as mental health issues can be , a very negligible amount of attention is seeked by the topic. Given that a lot of stigma is attached to mental health , let alone the usage of AI has its own stigmas too. But fighting its way through , AI has set a new mechanism in the field of mental health.
The technologies developed in AI for the treatment of mental health illnesses like depression, anxiety ,schizophrenia are still in their budding phase. Doctors have argued over the usage of AI as a mode to treat depression and anxiety. As the efficiency of the methods adopted which seem to be an alternate of therapy, is still questionable by many psychologists. The concept of visual therapist is set to reduce the problem of depression and isolation among people.Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are bringing psychotherapy to more people who need it. Machine learning and advanced AI technologies are enabling a new type of care that focuses on providing individualized emotional support. Below are the techniques used to ease mental health issues :
- “ Clinical research psychologist Dr. Alison Darcy created Woebot, a Facebook-integrated computer program that aims to replicate conversations a patient might have with his or her therapist.
Woebot is a chatbot that resembles an instant messaging service. The digital health technology asks about your mood and thoughts, “listens” to how you are feeling, learns about you and offers evidence-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) tools. Interactions with Woebot aim to emulate a real-life face-to-face meeting, and the interaction is tailored to the individual’s situation “
- “ A virtual therapist named Ellie has also been launched and trialed by the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT). Initially, Ellie was designed to treat veterans experiencing depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
What is so special about the technology is that Ellie can detect not only words but also nonverbal cues (e.g. facial expressions, gestures, posture). Nonverbal signs are very important in therapy, yet can be subtle and difficult to pick up.”
- Ginger.io combine machine learning and a clinical network to provide you with the right level of emotional support at the right time. This platform, founded more than six years ago, integrates clinicians with AI and offers 24/7 online CBT, mindfulness and resilience training.
“ Make it easy for employees to get the support they need, when they need it, with on-demand behavioral health coaching, teletherapy, telepsychiatry and guided self-care.”
- Simon D’Alfonso of The National Center of Excellence in Youth Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia, and his colleagues have been working on the Moderate Online Social Therapy (MOST) project. The MOST model is being used with young people recovering from psychosis and depression. The technology helps create a therapeutic environment where young people learn and interact, as well as practice therapeutic techniques.
- Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) used functional MRI (fMRI), a method in which magnetic field is used to map and measure brain activity.With this, they measured brain activity in 93 healthy and 81 schizophrenia patients. Brain information was obtained from fMRI during the resting stage. Researchers divided the whole brain into different regions or parcels. This helped researchers collate 84 points of data (from 14 brain division schemes, and 6 features extracted from each scheme) from each subject. Using these data points from healthy and schizophrenic patients, the group has built a model that could predict schizophrenia with an accuracy of 87%.
After all these advancements the question still arises, of whether they are effective and fully functioning and do they actually provide aid to the users who suffer through mental health issues. Some researchers say that no matter how many technologies are introduced and discoveries are made one can not assure a fully functional adaptability with Artificial Intelligence or Virtual Human Avatars and the results however can be counterproductive as overuse of such technologies can enhance the isolation and alienation problem as it reduces human interaction and deteriorating the patient’s mental health to further extent. The people who are the minds behind the coding and developing of these technologies specify that the task performed are solely done by robots and in no way can replace human connection. Although the skepticism about usage of AI in mental health is always attached , the results however are overwhelmingly positive in some technologies like Woebot and Ginger.io.
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most of the mentals illness leads to brain damage and that really need a help of a neuro specialist
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