Becker’s Behavioral Health: Cedars-Sinai’s Virtual Therapist Is ‘Shockingly Good’

Becker’s Behavioral Health recently interviewed Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai, about eXtended-Reality Artificially Intelligent Ally (Xaia), an app for the Apple VisionPro headset that provides virtual conversational therapy and emotional support for patients.

Spiegel, who helped develop the app, told Becker’s Behavioral Health patients have shared positive feedback about Xaia, an avatar that looks like a robot and simulates a human therapist.

“They feel that they’re not being judged,” said Spiegel, the George and Dorothy Gourrich Chair in Digital Health Ethics and a professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai. “They tell us they feel like this robot is shockingly good at empathizing and listening to them and providing really valuable feedback and information.”

Xaia is programmed with hundreds of scenarios and prompts. Spiegel told Becker’s Behavioral Health Cedars-Sinai psychotherapy experts helped ensure the app provides an engaging and immersive therapy experience.

“What’s amazing is she’s using six different forms of AI [artificial intelligence] at any different time, including her emotional expressions,” Spiegel said. “She has over 140 different facial expressions that she can go through. She looks you right in the eye, she looks away. She's very interactive, but she's not a human, and that’s on purpose.”

Spiegel told Becker’s Behavioral Health he expects virtual cognitive behavioral therapy will continue to evolve and increase in use. 

“I think as more people get headsets, we’re going to be seeing more mental health support tools that are impactful,” he said.

Click here to read the complete article from Becker’s Behavioral Health.