Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center researchers, led by Dr. Jonathan Bricker, launched an AI-powered chatbot app called QuitBot to help more people successfully quit smoking cigarettes. Available for free on Apple and Android devices, QuitBot is a comprehensive app that uses an AI-powered chatbot to provide users personalized support to quit smoking.
“QuitBot goes a step further than other currently available smoking cessation tool by offering users the ability to ask specific questions and receive tailored, scientifically backed responses,” said Dr. Jonathan Bricker, professor and behavioral science researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutch. “It’s capable of understanding user’s questions about quitting smoking and responding with clinically proven answers. This feature helps make the experience more engaging and meaningful for the user.”
QuitBot is a comprehensive quit smoking program of three-to-five-minute focused conversations over two phases: 14 days pre-quit date and 28 days post-quit date. The conversations cover topics ranging from motivations to quit, setting a quit date, to identifying and coping with a wide range of triggers and recovering from lapses or relapses. Users can ask QuitBot any question they have about quitting smoking and it will respond with the researchers’ trained AI-based natural language technology.
The National Cancer Institute provided the initial funding to develop QuitBot. The Fred Hutch researchers then collaborated with Microsoft AI for Good Lab, using its AI expertise to refine the conversational chat function. (Daniel Pérez)
