The Jaen University has developed a tool that allows analyze the vocabulary of young people for the early detection of gambling addiction with the help of artificial intelligencewhich will allow the development of a prevention chatbot that speaks its own language.
Specifically, the work has been carried out by the Departments of Computer Science, Psychology and English Philology of the University of Jaén, within the framework of the PRECOM project, led by professor Arturo Montejo Ráezfrom the SINAI Research Group (Intelligent Information Access Systems) of the UJA.
How this gambling prevention tool was created
In the first phase of this work, The psychology team has collected data from 227 secondary school students in the province of Jaén (the capital of Jaén, Úbeda, La Carolina or Andújar), as well as other points of Spanish geography, such as Córdoba, Almería or Lorca. This data collection has been carried out through contact with different secondary schools.
He Linguistic analysis of the interviews has revealed the use of specific vocabulary related to video games and a great use of irony in those young people who spend the most hours in front of the computer. These data are analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence to prevent the risk of gambling addiction.
What is this tool like to detect tendencies towards addictive gambling?
The objective is create a chatbot, currently in development by the computer science and linguistics team, which will be able to talk to teenagers about video games and emotions. The chatbot will be programmed with the vocabulary and expressions collected in the interview phase.
“It is expected that, with this tool, PRECOM will help in the prevention of video game addictions through the use of natural language. By using a more natural language for adolescents, the tool will facilitate positive responses to any intervention at an educational or therapeutic level,” says researcher Arturo Montejo.
The PRECOM project is financed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs of the Government of Spain.
