Brain, the AI-based therapist democratising access to mental health care

At a time when mental health is one of the major problems in today’s society, access to psychology should not be a luxury. With the irruption of generative AI and the great technological advances, from Thera4all and with the help of Plain Concepts, we set out to democratise access to it by combining all the knowledge of a group of expert psychologists with the latest technologies.

Brain is a solution that facilitates access to psychological consultations through the use of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence. It is available to everyone, from anywhere and at any time. This provides a unique and immersive experience that prioritises the wellbeing of patients when they need it most.

The Challenge The project was a huge challenge, especially because of its focus on mental health. It had to offer a realistic experience, as if the user were on a real call with their therapist, as well as preserving their privacy and offering a rigorous service based on scientific studies on all kinds of scenarios and situations to be taken into account by the virtual psychologist, with the aim of offering an interaction personalised to the user's needs.

Results One of the main challenges was to achieve an immersive, realistic and attractive experience. To achieve this, we have used our Evergine graphics engine, with which we have done a great job of low-level optimisation in the rendering, as well as developing new morphing techniques that achieve realistic movement when the therapist speaks.

The synchronisation of the audio with the movement of the face, as well as the rendering of the skin, hair and eyes makes patients forget that they are in front of an AI. At the AI level, a very powerful backend has been built using the latest prompting techniques to ensure that the virtual therapist does not make impermissible recommendations to the user. By optimising the OpenAI API calls and relying on cognitive services, we use a neural voice that generates the responses, which are sent to the graphics engine so that the mouth movements go accordingly. Another pillar of this solution is the security of patient data. That is why we have paid special attention to creating a content moderation strategy using AI services, ensuring their ethical and responsible use.

Highlights Thanks to Brain, psychology is made accessible with the most advanced AI applied to human care, creating a hyper-realistic metahuman that makes the patient feel understood, listened to and guided. In addition, it offers assessments certified by healthcare psychologists in areas such as dementia, anxiety, depression, suicide risk, autism, ADHD, etc. The platform uses algorithms based on psychological assessment models that are widely accepted and validated in the scientific literature. They are subjected to rigorous external review and validation methods, ensuring that they reflect the highest standards of biomedical and psychological research.

Brain not only represents cutting-edge technology, it represents an unwavering commitment to the well-being of patients. It is a tool that democratises access to mental health, bringing hope and help to every corner of the world.