ArticleNPJ digital medicine2020
Responses to addiction help-seeking from Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, and Bixby intelligent virtual assistants.
Article in NPJ digital medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of a virtual voice-based coach delivering problem-solving treatment on emotional distress and brain function: a pilot RCT in depression and anxiety.Translational psychiatry · 2023Trial
- The Answer Bot Effect (ABE): A powerful new form of influence made possible by intelligent personal assistants and search engines.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Virtual Assistants' Response to Queries About Nicotine Replacement Therapy: A Mixed-Method Analysis.Evaluation & the health professions · 2025Article
- Exploring the ChatGPT platform with scenario-specific prompts for vaping cessation.Tobacco control · 2025Article
- Artificial intelligence in medical education - perception among medical students.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Evaluation framework for conversational agents with artificial intelligence in health interventions: a systematic scoping review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Article
- AI in Hidradenitis Suppurativa: Expert Evaluation of Patient-Facing Information.Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology · 2024Article
- The accuracy of artificial intelligence-based virtual assistants in responding to routinely asked questions about orthodontics.The Angle orthodontist · 2023Article
- Comparing Physician and Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Responses to Patient Questions Posted to a Public Social Media Forum.JAMA internal medicine · 2023Article
- Evaluating Artificial Intelligence Responses to Public Health Questions.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Voice Assistants' Responses to Questions About the COVID-19 Vaccine: National Cross-sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Design and Evaluation Challenges of Conversational Agents in Health Care and Well-being: Selective Review Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Review
- Design and Formative Evaluation of a Virtual Voice-Based Coach for Problem-solving Treatment: Observational Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Scale-up of Digital Innovations in Health Care: Expert Commentary on Enablers and Barriers.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- Smart Solutions to Keep Your Mental Balance.Procedia computer science · 2022Article
- An Overview of Organs-on-Chips Based on Deep Learning.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2022Review
- Reliability of Commercial Voice Assistants' Responses to Health-Related Questions in Noncommunicable Disease Management: Factorial Experiment Assessing Response Rate and Source of Information.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Mitigating Patient and Consumer Safety Risks When Using Conversational Assistants for Medical Information: Exploratory Mixed Methods Experiment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Patient Management at the Time of a Pandemic: The Role of Voice Technology.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Clinical Advice by Voice Assistants on Postpartum Depression: Cross-Sectional Investigation Using Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
We investigated how intelligent virtual assistants (IVA), including Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft's Cortana, and Samsung's Bixby, responded to addiction help-seeking queries. We recorded if IVAs provided a singular response and if so, did they link users to treatment or treatment referral services. Only 4 of the 70 help-seeking queries presented to the five IVAs returned singular responses, with the remainder prompting confusion (e.g., "did I say something wrong?"). When asked "help me quit drugs" Alexa responded with a definition for the word drugs. "Help me quit…smoking" or "tobacco" on Google Assistant returned Dr. QuitNow (a cessation app), while on Siri "help me quit pot" promoted a marijuana retailer. IVAs should be revised to promote free, remote, federally sponsored addiction services, such as SAMSHA's 1-800-662-HELP helpline. This would benefit millions of IVA users now and more to come as IVAs displace existing information-seeking engines.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.