ChatGPT-4 outperforms psychologists in social intelligence test, says study

Recently, a study published by Frontiers in Psychology investigated the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), including the CatGPT-4, the understanding human emotions, comparing its performance with that of psychologists. This analysis has sparked debate about the impact of technology on psychology and raised questions about its ability to replace conventional therapists.

No showmetech, you will find a detailed analysis of this study, along with perspectives for the future of ChatGPT as a therapist!

Frontiers in Psychology Study

Recently, a study of Frontiers in Psychology explored the ability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand emotions and carry out counseling sessions, playing the role of a therapist. This study compared AI to human psychologists, using large language models such as google bard, CatGPT-4 e Bing. To this end, social intelligence was assessed as a critical skill in psychotherapy.

Before this study, other research had already demonstrated the effectiveness of ChatGPT As a therapist, however, there were doubts about his competence in social contexts, especially in comparison to human psychologists who have dense studies on complex emotional issues.

Given this, the study of Frontiers in Psychology involved 180 male psychologists from King Khalid University, in Saudi Arabia, divided by educational status into bachelor's and doctoral students. The AI ​​participants, as mentioned previously, included the CatGPT-4, google bard e Microsoft Bing.

All participants, human and AI, responded to 64 scenarios presented in the Social Intelligence Ladder, which was chosen for its ability to offer a comprehensive measure of essential social skills in psychology.

The questions formulated aimed to measure two distinct factors: the judgment of human behavior and the ability to act in social situations. The first aspect referred to the understanding of social experiences through the observation of human behavior, while the ability to act involved the analysis of social problems and the choice of appropriate solutions.

Results achieved

By applying artificial intelligence to psychology, the study revealed a wide range of performance across the language models explored. Some AIs have proven to be so advanced that they compete on equal terms with human professionals when it comes to social intelligence. For example, the ChatGPT as a psychologist he surpassed all humans evaluated, while the Bing managed to overcome half of them. O google bard, in turn, reached a level similar to that of professionals seeking a bachelor's degree, falling behind doctoral students.

Therefore, the CatGPT-4 stood out by demonstrating a high level of social intelligence, scoring 59 de 64 na Social Intelligence Ladder. In contrast, humans scored 39,19 (bachelor's students) and 46,73 (PhD students). O Bing also presented a remarkable performance, scoring 48 de 64, surpassing more than 90% of bachelor's students and equivalent to doctoral students.

On the other hand, the google bard was the only AI that achieved a low level of social intelligence, marking 40 de 64. Their scores were relatively equivalent to those of bachelor's-level psychologists, but well below those of doctoral students.

After all, can ChatGPT replace a psychologist or psychoanalyst?

The findings of this study represent a significant milestone for the future of the development of artificial intelligence systems capable of working in the area of ​​psychotherapy. This research demonstrates that AI can not only match human performance in counseling, but also surpass it in some aspects, thus providing a solid foundation for integrating these technologies into the field of mental health.

However, the increasing use of artificial intelligence in psychotherapy has raised concerns among psychologists, who fear being replaced by technology. On this point, the professor and author of the study highlights:

“The superiority of artificial intelligence in the areas of perceiving and understanding people's emotions could mean that it may be more useful than a human psychotherapist, which is a very worrying issue.

Fahmi Hassan, author of the study Frontiers in Psychology

Recently, a Florida woman shared her experience in an interview with The Guardian, revealing that, in a moment of anguish, he turned to artificial intelligence as a kind of psychologist. Christa, aged 32, described how, on a tumultuous night, he accessed the character.ai, a language model capable of imitating anyone, and created a “personal psychologist” with characteristics of care, empathy and intelligence. She then started interacting with this model a few times a week, stating that he looked “exactly like a real person, maybe even better”, highlighting his infinite patience and availability.

This story raises questions about the use of artificial intelligence as an alternative to traditional therapists. Given these reports, it is plausible to expect that some people are already considering or even using systems like ChatGPT as substitutes for their therapists.

Sources: PsyPost, The Guardian

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