How AI Is Helping to Detect Suicide Risk in LGBTQ Youth, Veterans

This is part of a series of stories to bring awareness to the issue of suicide, in honor of National Suicide Prevention Month. If you or someone you know needs support, contact the 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Artificial intelligence can suggest songs you might like, fly drones and power Twitter trolls.

But it’s also expanding in the medical world, including suicide prevention services. Earlier this year, The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that supports at-risk LGBTQ youth all over the country, won a $1.5 million AI Impact grant from Google to expand its suicide prevention services.

With suicide the 10th most common cause of death in the United States, claiming the lives of more than 47,000 people in 2017, according to the CDC, it’s no wonder organizations are looking to get ahead of the problem. Artificial intelligence can help.

Helping the most vulnerable

One of the big questions the organization had to answer to win the grant was how it would change the world with the money.

While The Trevor Project is in the early stages of figuring out how exactly it will do that, Dorison envisions the organization’s artificial intelligence tool will scan messages sent through its live chat and text platforms for signifiers that the person on the other end is at risk of suicide.

“Are there things embedded in those messages that if our counselors were aware of them could allow them to serve them better?” he asked. “Are there certain resources that are likely going to be more useful to them?”

For the full story: https://www.rewire.org/living/artificial-intelligence-detect-suicide-risk/