EVALUATING THE EFFICACY OF CHATGPT IN PROVIDING EMOTIONAL SUPPORT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AI AND HUMAN COUNSELING ON STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH OUTCOMES

Recently, a widespread popularity has been obtained by a highly advanced Artificial intelligence based model called ChatGPT.This advanced model has several uses such as language translation, content generation, personal assistance, career guidance and so on.Additionally, it can also provide emotional support and counseling for the students in an educational setting.A valuable insight can be acquired from the implementation of ChatGPT in the educational environment particularly in the expanding need for mental health services.The study aims to compare and analyze the mental health outcomes of two different groups of students who received emotional support, with one group receiving support from ChatGPT and the other from human counselors.To collect quantitative data the study conducted an online Randomized Controlled Trial and deployed mixed-effects regression models to compare the effectiveness.The study used standard questionnaires such as GAD-7 and PHQ-9 for assessing anxiety and depression.Around 512 students took part in the survey, in which 94.33% of students provided valid responses.Among the two groups, the students who obtained counseling from ChatGPT demonstrated better mental states than the students who relied on counseling of humans.As a result, this study provides broader support for the mental health professionals like psychologists and counselors to address personalized and comprehensive care for the students who have poor mental health or need mental support.Despite these contributions the study has a limitation to provide accurate analysis of human emotions.This challenging limitation can be considered as a research gap in future.