The AI That Could Help Curb Youth Suicide

Sundry Photography/Shutterstock.com

For many reasons, parents and teachers may fail to intervene when they spot LGBTQ teens in trouble. Can Google help?

In suicide-prevention literature, “gatekeepers” are community members who may be able to offer help when someone expresses suicidal thoughts. It’s a loose designation, but it generally includes teachers, parents, coaches, and older co-workers—people with some form of authority and ability to intervene when they see anything troubling.

Could it also include Google? When users search certain key phrases related to suicide methods, Google’s results prominently feature the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. But the system isn’t foolproof. Google can’t edit webpages, just search results, meaning internet users looking for information about how to kill themselves could easily find it through linked pages or on forums, never having used a search engine at all. At the same time, on the 2019 internet, “run me over” is more likely to be a macabre expression of fandom than a sincere cry for help—a nuance a machine might not understand. Google’s artificial intelligence is also much less effective at detecting suicidal ideation when people search in languages other than English.

Ultimately, search results are a useful, but very broad, area in which to apply prevention strategies. After all, anyone could be looking for anything for any reason. Google’s latest foray into algorithmic suicide prevention is more targeted, for people who are already asking for help. In May, the tech giant granted $1.5 million to the Trevor Project, a California-based nonprofit that offers crisis counseling to LGBTQ teenagers via a phone line (TrevorLifeline), a texting service (TrevorText), and an instant-messaging platform (TrevorChat). The project’s leaders want to improve TrevorText and TrevorChat by using machine learning to automatically assess suicide risk. It’s all centered on the initial question that begins every session with a Trevor counselor: “What’s going on?”

“We want to make sure that, in a nonjudgmental way, we’ll talk suicide with them if it’s something that’s on their mind,” says Sam Dorison, the Trevor Project’s chief of staff. “And really let them guide the conversation. Do [they] want to talk about coming out [or] resources by LGBT communities within their community? We really let them guide the conversation through what would be most helpful to them.”

Currently, those who reach out enter a first-come, first-served queue.Trevor’s average wait time is less than five minutes, but in some cases, every second counts. Trevor’s leadership hopes that eventually, the AI will be able to identify high-risk callers via their response to that first question, and connect them with human counselors immediately.

Google’s AI will be trained using two data points: the very beginning of youths’ conversations with counselors, and the risk assessment counselors complete after they’ve spoken with them. The idea is that by looking at how initial responses compare with ultimate risk, the AI can be trained to predict suicide risk based on the earliest response.

“We think that if we’re able to train the model based on those first few messages and the risk assessment, that there’s a lot more things that you don’t see that a machine could pick up on and can potentially help us learn more about,” says John Callery, the director of technology for the Trevor Project. Counselors will continue to make their own assessments, Callery added, noting that Trevor’s deescalation rate is 90 percent.

Algorithms have incredible potential to recognize unseen patterns, but what’s essential to being a good gatekeeper is agency—stepping forward and intervening if something’s wrong. That may or may not be a thing we want to imbue technology with, though in some ways we already have. Public-health initiatives in Canada and the U.K. mine social-media data to predict suicide risk. Facebook uses AI to quickly flag live videos to police if algorithms detect self-harm or violence.

We query Google on everything from hangover cures to medical advice to how to get over a breakup. The results can be mixed, or even misleading, but the search bar doesn’t pass judgment.

“[Students] go home, they get online, and they can disclose any of this stuff to anybody in the whole world,” says Stephen Russell, the chair of human development and family science at the University of Texas at Austin. Russell has been conducting pioneering research on LGBTQ youth for decades and says that while troubled students “shouldn’t have to go to Google” to address these problems, training real-life gatekeepers to be open and engaged allies doesn’t always work, because of decades of stigma and bias against the queer community. “Even today I hear [administrators] say, ‘Well, we don’t have kids like that here.’ That’s been an ongoing dilemma,” he says.

Which is where the Trevor Project comes in. Eventually, the nonprofit’s leaders want an AI system that will predict what resources youths will need—housing, coming-out help, therapy—all by scanning the first few messages in a chat. Long term, they hope to evolve the AI so it can recognize patterns in metadata beyond just scanning initial messages. For example, if the AI could determine reading or education level from the messages, could it make inferences about how structural factors affect suicide risk? It seems impossible that following a tangled field of “if, then” statements could save someone’s life, but soon enough, it could.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.