Alison Darcy is a psychologist and technologist. She is the founder and

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

of Woebot, a company which provides

digital therapeutics Digital therapeutics, a subset of digital health, are evidence-based therapeutic interventions driven by high quality software programs to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder or disease. Digital therapeutic companies should publish trial re ...

and behavioral health products.

Early life and education

Darcy was an undergraduate student in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

at the

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

, where she specialised in psychology. After completing her studies, Darcy became interested in computer science, so moved to London to work in an investment bank as a software developer. The investment bank was acquired by a larger bank during the

dot com crash The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

, leaving Darcy looking for new options. In particular, she was interested in combining her skills in technology with her talent for psychology, and worked with a charity to support people with eating disorders. At the time there was very little online support for people with mental health conditions, and accessing care was particularly difficult for people in rural communities. Working with one of her colleagues in software development, Darcy built an online support network, providing round-the-clock support to people who needed to talk. She eventually returned to University College Dublin for a graduate degree, and eventually a doctoral research programme in clinical psychology. Her research considered the effectiveness of group

cognitive behavioural therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders. CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions (su ...

. After a year in London, Darcy moved to the United States, where she joined

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

as a postdoctoral researcher in clinical psychology. At Stanford, she collaborated with

Andrew Ng Andrew Yan-Tak Ng (; born 1976) is a British-born American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and AI. Ng was a co-founder and head of Google Brain and was the former Chief Scientist at Baidu, building ...

, and became interested in whether artificial intelligence can meaningfully help people with mental health conditions. In her clinical practise, Darcy was increasingly concerned that there was no continuity between leaving in patient care and entering the real world.

Research and career

Darcy continued to research eating disorders, with a particular focus on

anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gr ...

. She recognised that very few clinicians had the appropriate training to treat patients with the condition. She pioneered the use of online learning methods to train clinicians. She became increasingly aware that to combine technology and psychology she would have to do it outside academia, so left to start her own company. In 2017 Darcy founded Woebot, an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

powered chatbot that helps users monitor their moods and manage their mental health. The board of Woebot is chaired by Ng. Darcy wants to make mental health services and the trainings of cognitive behavioural therapy accessible to all. In April 2020, Woebot added

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

support, expanding its CBT support to include

interpersonal psychotherapy Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a brief, attachment-focused psychotherapy that centers on resolving interpersonal problems and symptomatic recovery. It is an empirically supported treatment (EST) that follows a highly structured and time-limite ...

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darcy, Alison Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of University College Dublin Stanford University faculty Mental health activists Artificial intelligence ethicists Clinical psychologists Artificial intelligence researchers