A new capability has been added to the growing list of ChatGPT’s functions: providing useful relationship advice to couples facing difficulties.

A research team from Ohio State University and the Hatch Mental Health Data Center has published a study in the journal PLOS Mental Health, investigating whether ChatGPT can serve as a relationship counselor. The team included clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and psychiatrists.

The researchers asked 830 participants—many of whom had previously consulted professionals for relationship issues—to read a list of relationship advice. Participants were then tasked with distinguishing which advice came from a licensed professional and which was generated by artificial intelligence.

The findings revealed that participants correctly identified ChatGPT-generated advice only 51% of the time, while the recognition rate for expert-generated advice was just 56%. Based on these results, researchers concluded that ChatGPT has the potential to assist couples seeking professional guidance for their relationship challenges.

“While many therapists continue to emphasize empathy, therapeutic rapport, expertise, or cultural competence as qualities that computers can never replicate, such arguments were dismissed by Alan Turing in the 1950s and do not appear to be supported by current data. If generative AI cannot fully replicate human therapists now, it will soon find ways to simulate human interaction to a sufficient degree,” the researchers noted.