Earlier this January, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center developed an application named QuitBot, powered by an AI chatbot to help people quit smoking. The app offers a 42-day program intended for people suffering from addiction to nicotine by providing valuable ways to help them quit smoking. QuitBot engages in conversation with people through a character named Ellen and helps the people by sharing scientific information regarding the dangers of smoking and the ways to cope with the craving. The idea behind QuitBot was taken and initiated by Dr. Jonathan Bricker and a group of researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The team took this initiative to help society with nicotine addiction and provide efficient ways to quit smoking.
The app is developed using scientifically backed-up information and solutions and also provides a genuine guide to users who wish to quit smoking. Considering the growing concern of smoking or nicotine addiction in today’s world, it has become necessary for the use of apps like QuitBot. Even though there are many such applications nowadays to quit smoking, QuitBot uses an AI-assisted character specially personalized to an individual who guides you in the right direction when they crave to smoke. The app contains around 32 conversations that would last around two weeks. It identifies the user’s problems and provides the solutions needed to patch up the issue of smoking.
When asked Dr. Jonathan Bricker about QuitBot he stated that their team wanted to create something different from other quit smoking cessation tools. QuitBot offers a two-way interaction opportunity. It uses larger language models (LLMs) and this way people can share their concerns while also receiving valuable answers based on scientific information and studies. QuitBot helps people guide their way toward quitting smoking and providing them with a healthier lifestyle. It works like a personal healthcare expert who is extremely capable of understanding the problems faced by the user and who will also be available anytime they need them. QuitBot was initially funded by the National Cancer Institute. For further assistance regarding an interactive platform powered by AI technologies, the researchers teamed up with Microsoft AI Good Lab.
As per the reports by the researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, they spend around six years developing and testing this application to confirm its effectiveness. The same research group has taken the initiative to create a healthy community and spent more than 20 years creating innovative and essential smoking cessation tools. The inner sources have also revealed that the researchers have recently surveyed more than a hundred people using QuitBot to understand the effective working and safety of the application. Dr. Bricker also explains that the application is made with advanced AI technologies and their major intention is to make QuitBot applicable to a larger audience without having to spend any of their funds. This might clear the fact that the initiative behind such an application is to help the community suffering from addiction to nicotine rather than a commercial strategy.
According to the reports brought out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while half of adult smokers have tried to quit smoking only a very few among them quit smoking. Governments and world leaders have joined their hands to lend their support to such quitting smoking tools and applications for the well-being of the society. It is a fact that the AI technologies have already taken hold of the next generation. The leaders have started to understand the need for such applications powered by AI technologies as such platforms have the potential to increase people’s access to low-cost healthcare facilities.
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