Science

How Aury is developed, what we research, and who guides us along the way.

How We Develop Aury

We are committed to developing our Aury in a responsible, ethical, and safe manner.

Our development process is guided by the recommendations put forth in Stade, E.C., Stirman, S.W., Ungar, L.H. et al. (2024) Large language models could change the future of behavioral healthcare: a proposal for responsible development and evaluation. npj Mental Health Res 3, 12. The key principles we follow:

1. Focus on Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs): We prioritize the integration of established EBPs and techniques into our AI therapist to ensure it reflects current scientific knowledge and minimizes the risk of harm.
2. Prioritize Improvement, Not Just Engagement: While user engagement is important, our primary goal is to drive meaningful clinical improvements in symptoms, functioning, and well-being. We avoid optimizing solely for metrics that may not translate to actual therapeutic benefits.
3. Rigorous and Commonsense Evaluation: We employ a hierarchical evaluation approach that prioritizes risk and safety, followed by feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness. We hold our AI therapist to high standards while recognizing the real-world context and the imperfections of human-delivered care.
4. Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Our team comprises experts from clinical psychology, AI/ML engineering, and other relevant domains. We believe this interdisciplinary approach is crucial for developing an AI therapist that is clinically sound, technologically robust, and ethically grounded.
5. Transparency and User Trust: We are transparent about our use of AI technology and prioritize building trust with both therapists and patients. We actively seek their input to ensure our product is acceptable, usable, and beneficial in real-world clinical settings.

Our Study

The study examines the extent to which the program 'Digital Stress Management with Aury' contributes to improving health-relevant, preventive parameters.

Expected outcomes:

• General experience of stress is reduced.
• Life satisfaction is increased.
• Well-being is increased.
• Positive thinking is increased.
• Self-efficacy is increased.
• Active coping behavior is increased.

More information about the study can be found in the study register.

Scientific Advisory Board

Leading experts guiding our mission to make mental health support accessible through AI.

Prof. Dr. Kevin Hilbert

Advisor, Clinical Psychology

Kevin Hilbert is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at HMU and a trained Cognitive Behavioral Therapist (CBT). His research focuses on predictive analytics and machine learning in clinical settings.

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Prof. Dr. Christoph Benzmüller

Advisor, AI Development

Christoph Benzmüller holds the Chair of AI System Development at the University of Bamberg and is an extraordinary professor of FU Berlin. His work bridges AI, philosophy, and mathematics.

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Funding

Project title

Employment of a working student as part of a company innovation project

Aury Care GmbH is developing a psychological AI platform. The innovation specialist supports the development of key components of the AI platform and takes on tasks directly serving research, product innovation, and technological advancement.

Co-financed by the European Union and the State of Brandenburg.