Today, there are dozens of large language model chatbots aimed at mental health care -- addressing everything from loneliness among seniors to anxiety and depression in teens. But the efficacy of these apps is unclear. Even more unclear is how well these apps work in supporting specific, marginalized groups like LGBTQ+ communities.
A team of researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Emory University, Vanderbilt University and the University of California Irvine, found that while large language models can offer fast, on-demand support, they frequently fail to grasp the specific challenges that many members of the LGBTQ+ community face.The paper is being presented this week at the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing System in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
"The boilerplate nature of the chatbots' responses highlights their failure to recognize the complex and nuanced LGBTQ+ identities and experiences, making the chatbots' suggestions feel emotionally disengaged," said Zilin Ma, a PhD student at SEAS and co-first author of the paper. Ma, who is in the lab of Krzysztof Gajos, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, stressed that while there are ways to improve these programs, it is not a panacea.
"Rather than having teens in crisis talk to the chatbot directly, you could use the chatbot to train counselors," said Ma."Then you have a real human to talk to, but it empowers the counselors with technology, which is a socio-technical solution which I think works well in this case."