Just-In-Time-Training (JITT) / Noni Help
Just-In-Time Training (JITT): Limited and Careful AI to Empower Human Connection and Support
On 7 Cups, our goal is to provide the tools and and the space for people to support each other through their suffering. We help people through active listening, group support, therapy, growth paths, mindfulness, forum posts and so much more. Over the last 10 years, we have learned so much and made so much progress toward this mission. Currently, we provide 11 interventions to help people better cope with and overcome mental health challenges. The power of scaled up support with the help of technology, on a global scale, has been clearly demonstrated by our compassionate community which continues to evolve.
We want to decrease human suffering for free or at little cost. We believe in mental health for all. Anyone that needs help should be able to receive it regardless of language, location, or financial status.
Active listening is the core foundation of our mental health for all vision. It is a set of principles that turns communication into honest and empathic conversation paving the way for support in our daily lives. This leads to human connection on a new level, one that supports healing and wellbeing.
When we provide this support, however, it is sometimes easy to get stuck. For example, a member says something that is difficult to respond to, and you want to respond in a caring way, but you are just not sure what to say. The member also knows you care for them and want to help them. When this happens, we can freeze or maybe we say something that isn’t super helpful. It can take the conversation in a direction that is less healing.
Another important thing to know about the skill of listening is that it is normally distributed. There are some people that are excellent listeners, most people are average listeners, and then some people that struggle to be good listeners. The vast majority of listeners want to be good listeners. If a person signs up on this platform and goes through the work of training, as a volunteer, they are clearly here to be the best listener they can be. But given the distribution, having varied tools can only help.
With the rise of AI over the last decade, we began to think more about the role of this technology in facilitating human connection, healing, and growth. Noni, our AI chatbot launched in 2014, was trained and informed by our community and maintained our values. By 2017, Noni was able to greet users, participate in a group discussion while uniting group members, as well as contribute with positive humor. And, more recently, Noni just went through another series of iterations.
With the latest wave of AI models, we began probing a question that could update what our current support system looked like. What if the latest technology could help everyone wanting to train to be a better listener? We know that anyone who volunteers to listen and trains with us is already very dedicated. This motivation is usually followed by a long pathway of training at the 7 Cups Academy, but what support could we give these active listeners to start their journey right away? Listening is a skill that we can improve on continuously, and so learning something new every day stands as ground for ongoing practice.
There is a sort of training called “Just-In-Time Training” (JITT). This is training that provides the person with the exact information they need at exactly the right moment. Contrast this with taking a course and then remembering and applying what you learned in that course 2 or 3 months later. Both types of training are needed to help people grow professionally.
In the near future, new listeners that want help getting unstuck with just-in-time training, will have the option of clicking a “Noni help” button that says “suggest a response.” AI will then draft a response to the member’s message and drop it in the listener’s message composition area. The listener can then edit the response and hit send when ready.
AI can help us do a better job of decreasing suffering for people that are in pain by empowering human connections based on the core principles of active listening for support. And better yet, this application of AI can be an ethical demonstration of a key debate running through everyone’s mind: Can Humans and AI work together? Collaboration helps everyone move forward together, and with the 7 Cups model in mind, we aim to set an ethical example on how to use AI to productively scale up emotional support.
What Led Us To Need Just-In-Time Training?
Up to this point, our focus has been on foundational training methodologies and tools, which we have developed in the Academy.
We have now trained 500,000 listeners. Collectively, those listeners, and some members, have completed 932,544 courses, and we have helped millions of people. That is a remarkable amount of training! We are almost at 1 million courses completed and the best part is that all of this has been done for free. We do dozens of other things as well to increase the quality of listening on the platform. Our community leaders work very hard on this front. We have come very far, but we have a lot of work left to do.
Each week I get PMs about how much a listener has helped a member or a note that people found 7 Cups and we helped them turn their life around. These are my favorite messages to get. They make me proud of the work we do.
I also get messages from people that did not feel helped. They wish we would have done a better job. Mental health is a complex and complicated issue, and while we have made significant strides, I know that we have a long way to go. Every quarter we do better, but there is always room for improvement.
We are now adding these just-in-time training tools as a way to better equip our listeners and to help integrate learning from courses into real-time conversational support.
The Problem is the Path
At 7 Cups, we believe that the problem is the path - facing challenges helps us find solutions that enable us to stay on the right path.
As we conceptualized this tool, we had to ask ourselves the following questions to ensure what we are doing is as helpful as possible to different groups of people.
Should we use AI to provide just-in-time training to help listeners?
Should members be able to access listeners that are receiving just-in-time AI training support?
Should members have the option of chatting with listeners where they know that the listener cannot and is unable to use just-in-time AI supported listening?
The answer to all of the above is “Yes.” People can choose to engage in AI training and support or choose not to. It is entirely up to them.
Towards Better Active Listening (Humans + AI)
Just-In-Time-Training will be available to all new listeners and some leaders to help with testing. When a member connects with a listener, the member will be notified that the new listener has JITT as an option in a pinned message at the top of the chat.
When a new listener utilizing JITT clicks on the lightbulb icon/button, the AI creates the response through querying something called a large language model. You can think of this as a program that has ingested most of the human text on the Internet. They then convert all of those words and sentences into numbers and then use formulas to predict the right string of words that offers a strong response to the member message. We have informed the formulas with what it means to be an effective active listener, so that the suggestions are fully compliant to 7 Cups protocols as well as conduct policies.
We will very likely limit the use of this tool after a certain amount of time, because we see it as a tool to help us strengthen our active listening and empathy muscles. We do not want to become overly dependent on it. We do not yet know what the optimal amount of time is for people to access it. Our initial plan is to roll it out with new listeners, learn, and then expand to more listeners if it makes sense.
Also, listeners cannot copy and paste the response. We have disabled this capability and they are prompted to use it for inspiration, but to make sure they send the message in their own words, because human to human connections is key.
Leaders are also helping us test JITT so we can learn more quickly. If you are a listener that has been on the platform and would also like to help us test JITT, then please sign up here. If you are a member, chatting with an older listener or leader, and you want to see if they have JITT turned on, then look at the pinned messages at the top of the chat to verify.
There is lots for us to learn over the next several weeks.. I’ll keep you all posted.
Community Collaboration and Benefits
It is important to note that this just-in-time training when stuck feature will need tweaking. That is why we are implementing this in a very careful way. Listeners are primary and human to human connection is central. If a listener is stuck and clicks that “suggest a response” button, but is not happy with the message, then they are free to ignore, delete or revise it. While our admin team, and professional experts, have been working hard to train the just-in-time training to provide the best suggestions, we will be collaborating with the community and using all feedback to continue to tweak our JITT feature.
We have been thinking about AI and mental health since 2014. That is when we introduced Noni. I believe that humans + AI will enable us to decrease suffering. AI will only reach its full potential when it is implemented in a way that helps humans reach their full potential. And, I believe that members and listeners should have the ability to choose to interact with AI as much as they like - a lot, or little, or not at all (just like what we do with Noni now). Both of these can be true. They are not mutually exclusive.
We have always said that we use technology to facilitate human connection, healing and growth. Technology - like a website or app - is a medium much like a film or book. You can use the medium of film or text for good or bad. The same is true for technology and is true of the technology that we call AI. On 7 Cups, technology is a facilitator of human connection and is never a replacement. Listeners are and will always be primary (see this post from 2016).
7 Cups is a special place for a myriad of reasons. We are a community of the best people on the planet. The people with the biggest hearts that go the extra mile to help one another. Many of us are old souls. We’ve been through some ups and downs and we are real about how life unfolds. We don’t pretend to have it all figured out. We know healing is a process.
The Future of Active Listening is the Best Future of AI
As a reminder, AI or other advances in technology will not replace any of our systems but will help in our efficiency. As technology evolves, we continue to invent tools that make our lives better - our growth paths are an example. Now, we have hundreds of growth paths filtered with topics, but how can a listener recommend an activity, prompt or tool for a unique person as a means of support? It would be a great next step to have ways to personalize our wellness journey - and AI will do just that. It is a paintbrush that respects unique human contexts, and as we embark on this path, we will find that it helps turn our needs into a reality.
Please share ideas, thoughts, reflections, and concerns below. I’ll do my best to answer them. Let’s also keep adding here or in some other dedicated section of the forum so we can figure these things out together.
Thank you!
To sign up to test JITT you can fill this form
@GlenM
I tried Just in Case Training earlier today.
The way I tested it out was by asking a mentor to “mock chat me”. And with that fake situation I looked at the different features.
Although I do somewhat like it, and you have the option to dismiss the response given, at the same time I dislike it.
I feel as though new listeners will be less likely to reach out to mentors and/or chat support.
As a listener, each of us form our own listening styles. I’ve personally never used a guide because I feel it feels too robotic and not “human enough”. Learning the best way you listen is one of the most important parts about each individuals listening journeys.
JICT takes that away somewhat and new listeners will have a harder time finding what they are comfortable with.
@tuffattack thank you for testing! I like the point you made a lot about finding your own unique listening style. Can you share more about how that happened for you?
@GlenM
In my opinion, time and practice.
I haven’t been a listener for that long however, I have some practice of it in my real life from different “situations/experiences” I have had.
Findjng out what makes you comfortable and getting into the groove of things just take a bit of effort on your part, some mock chats, and reflection.
For example, the way I chat to members is very different to how my mentor has a chat, and even though they are different, we still get similar results with our members and we feel comfortable in “our own skin” so to speak as a listener
On top of that, each individual member that comes to 7 cups may need a different listening style to feel heard. Some need a more professional environment while others prefer more of a unprofessional environment. We learn to adapt our own style to our members needs.
@Mahad2804 thank you for trying it out and for the feedback! The JITT team did an enormous amount of work on this to get the right tone, validation, and open questions.
Both of those are great points. If you can pm me any language where she continues to respond (and our filters don't pick it up), then that would help us address the issue. And excellent UI point on the trashcan idea instead of the X. I'll bring that up with Jon and we'll update you.
Thanks again!
@GlenM Hey! Answering the questions here:
1. How challenging is listening without JITT on a 1-10? How challenging is it with JITT?
Without JITT: 7
With JITT: 2 (feeling so very easy to listen with JITT help, I love it!)
2. Any concerns with JITT? If yes, how would you recommend we address or fix them?
The concern is the same that many of us are having. The challenge of making the best use of technology without compromising on authenticity.
An idea that comes to my mind is: After 10 usages of Noni Tips maybe, the listener would be asked this question: "Is Noni helping you make this chat productive?" There would be 2 options to select from: "Yes, Noni's help is making this chat productive!" and "No, I'd like human help from Listener Support Room, please take me there." The listener will pick one of the two options provided. How could that be? 😀
3. Any other thoughts, reactions, or ideas?
Thank you, thank you, thank youu! I genuinely believe we are on the right path and I deeply admire all the teamwork that has been invited from the community in this thread. It's a great opportunity to feel together and united and proceed together strong.
@Fristo I'm delighted to hear that you like it and find it so helpful! JITT makes it 200% easier to listen for you (and many others too). Here is a follow up question:
Does using JITT make listening less, the same, or more rewarding?
For me, and a few others I've talked to, interestingly it makes it more rewarding because we feel like we are doing a better job.
And I think this leads to the authenticity concern which is very real and probably the most important issue to make sure we face head on and that we are super clear about. I actually wonder if this ends up increasing authenticity. I know this sound paradoxical. Authenticity comes from a place of feeling safe, secure and confident. Very hard to be authentic when you are afraid or insecure. So, I wonder if b/c JITT helps listeners feel safe and increases confidence, an unexpected byproduct of that will be increased time of reaching and then growing authentic listening.
Now, correspondingly, the use of it would need to go down in that context, b/c the listener would be using more and more of their own voice. Towards that end, we need to think about a) what is the optimal amount of messages for month 1, month 2, month 3 and then is there some baseline level where it is always available for when we are stuck? eg., right now month 1 is 90 messages so maybe the baseline ends up being 15-20 messages? Not sure, but we can figure this out with data.
And love the ideas of more deliberate listener tips to guide people to mentors and listener support room. @beck1 brought up similar ideas above. If we can collate a number of ideas to sign post these supports available then I'd be very up for testing them and optimizing them to increase connections to mentors and LSR.
@GlenM That does make a lot of sense. It was only my first day of testing today, but I really felt so much better as a listener, I had more things to say than what would normally come to my mind in the live situation. I would think Noni Help is more relevant in the first 15-20 minutes of the chat, once the listener starts feeling connected to the member's world, the Noni help could be dropped more and more. Ultimately (from what I gather through all my listening experience at 7cups), it's about empathy. Once the empathy starts happening, there is nothing but healing ahead.
@GlenM
I have tried the Noni help feauture and I find it useful. From my member account, I can see there's a notification to make the member aware of it and there's also the Noni help badge. I think the users should enjoy maximum transparency about the use of AI. Therefore, I am glad that I don't really have to explain it to the member at the beginning.
1. How challenging is listening without JITT on a 1-10? How challenging is it with JITT?
I would say 3 but with JITT it would be 2.
2. Any concerns with JITT? If yes, how would you recommend we address or fix them?
I felt like the suggestions are not very appropriate and helpful at times. I wish there were multiple suggestions so I could have more ideas and make a choice based on what's more appropriate and helpful.
Another listener mentioned accidentally clicking the X sign to close the window even though the suggestions were helpful. This happened to me as well.
3. Any other thoughts, reactions, or ideas?
Overall I think it can be very helpful for new listeners and I also got to learn a few things. Sometimes the suggestions were a bit unnatural and robotic. But I did feel more confident and helpful with JITT.
All - quick update here. Early data is still coming in, but wanted to share some basic impressions on what we are seeing with new listeners. New listeners using JITT / Noni help are significantly - very significantly - more likely to get a 5 star rating in a chat than new listeners that do not use JITT / Noni help. On average, new listeners are only using it for about 10 messages a day, which is a tiny fraction of the overall messages they are sending (under 5% of the messages). And, last, new listeners that use JITT are taking quite a bit more chats and sending nearly double the messages than new listeners that do not use JITT.
It is still very early, but what does this suggest? It suggests that JITT:
-is enabling members to feel heard and understood as evidenced by a significant increase in 5 star ratings
-helping to increase confidence for new listeners with JITT as they pick up more chats and send more messages
-helps new listeners when they are stuck, or just-in-time, b/c new listeners are using JITT less than 5% of the time, which means, even for new listeners that they are nowhere near dependent on it.
"it's crucial to provide listeners with comprehensive training on using this new tool effectively and ethically. It’s not just about leveraging the suggestions provided by Noni but understanding the reasoning behind those suggestions. This would not only make the AI tool more effective but also help in the overall growth and development of the listener."
-suggested by @anonhelp123 in their post here.
@7cupscommunity
I would still really like to see more consent and awareness.
I have discovered that some listeners will have this appear at the top when chatting 1-1
Some listeners have access to a training programme where they can ask Noni for ideas how to respond when stuck in a conversation. This training is powered by AI and messages may be anonymously shared with Anthropic to improve the service.
I assume these are the ones who have the option to use the AI suggested responses. To me this message doesn't really clarify that the current listener I am chatting with has this option though.
The placement also means I have to seek this out. If it's a new connection, it's at the top. If it's a listener I have chatted with before, I have to scroll to find this.
@AffyAvo
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Affy. Need for transparency and awareness is valid here.
We are still trialing out and understand there's a lot of room for improvement and suggestions here and appreciate all the helpful feedback we are recieving to further improve the experience.
@soulfullyabutterfly could you please make a note of these suggestions also. Thank you!
@7CupsCommunity Thanks!
Hi all! I am not sure if there is a specific form to post feedback on the new system, so I will post here for now:
I am concerned about the AI giving listeners suggestions of advice or direct instructions to give to members. I won't go into specifics, but in a very recent chat the AI suggested that I tell the member to contact someone they were on the fence about contacting, before they lose the opportunity. Perhaps this could be a suggestion and I took it as advice, however I am worried about this occuring more often as the system improves and progresses.
@Lunaire00 thank you, feel welcome to send me a screenshot when this happens.
This is encouraging/teaching new listeners to be robotic.
@GlenM
Hi!
I’m a new listener and I have an idea for NONI and JITT. What about having NONI role play different members with various problems and concerns so listeners can train and practice their responding skills on her rather than with a member? Mock NONI bot training! This would help build skills and wouldn’t need to be in on live chats with members.
I believe colleges and universities are starting to use technology like this in their graduate counseling and psychotherapy programs and seems to be helpful in developing important foundational micro skills such as active listening, reflecting, empathy, summarizing, re-directing, open-ended questions, and more.
I have been trying to access a training program like this to develop my skills but my school doesn’t offer it. It seems that at this time, it is accessible to educators who use it with their students who pay a fee to use the program.
Just a thought and I hope I’ve been helpful!
Thank you!
