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Review
. 2023 Dec;20(6):481-486.
doi: 10.1007/s11904-023-00681-x. Epub 2023 Nov 27.

Chatbots for HIV Prevention and Care: a Narrative Review

Alastair van Heerden  1   2 , Shannon Bosman  3 , Dallas Swendeman  4   5 , Warren Scott Comulada  4   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Chatbots for HIV Prevention and Care: a Narrative Review

Alastair van Heerden et al. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose of review: To explore the intersection of chatbots and HIV prevention and care. Current applications of chatbots in HIV services, the challenges faced, recent advancements, and future research directions are presented and discussed.

Recent findings: Chatbots facilitate sensitive discussions about HIV thereby promoting prevention and care strategies. Trustworthiness and accuracy of information were identified as primary factors influencing user engagement with chatbots. Additionally, the integration of AI-driven models that process and generate human-like text into chatbots poses both breakthroughs and challenges in terms of privacy, bias, resources, and ethical issues. Chatbots in HIV prevention and care show potential; however, significant work remains in addressing associated ethical and practical concerns. The integration of large language models into chatbots is a promising future direction for their effective deployment in HIV services. Encouraging future research, collaboration among stakeholders, and bold innovative thinking will be pivotal in harnessing the full potential of chatbot interventions.

Keywords: Chatbots; Conversational agents; Generative AI; HIV prevention; Large language models.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests. GPT-04–0613 was used to brainstorm, provide bibliographic summaries of certain papers, and critique the final drafts in an interactive manner.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
10 principals of the RESET Framework [18]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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