Willem-Paul Brinkman

Willem-Paul Brinkman is an associate professor at Delft University of Technology. His Digital Behaviour Change research focuses on human interaction with AI to support individuals in their behaviour change processes. For this purpose, he studies psychologically informed Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions that are effective and operate responsibly from the start. He directs his attention to three key areas.

The first are is: training and therapy systems for mental change. Computer-assisted interventions in mental healthcare are relatively new phenomena, so he recognises an initial need for blueprints or design concepts for complete solutions to explore important directions. Therefore, he studies how training and therapies can be supported by AI, thereby considering principles from pedagogy and (clinical) psychology.

The second area is: algorithmic support. AI can also be embedded within large (digital) health intervention platforms as the field progresses. Here, AI can support and nudge people with advice or engage people in mental exercises, often in the role of a virtual coach. With their natural language interface, conversational agents provide an easy way for human-AI interaction.

The third area is: Methods and Measures.  Human-AI interaction is a new phenomenon and requires new methods and measurement instruments to create and study trustworthy and inclusive AI for digital behaviour change solutions.