How AI can help autistic people overcome social mishaps
After ten months of teaching cello lessons at an after-school program in Canada, Pierce felt like they were thriving in the job. Ten months into a gig teaching cello lessons at an after-school program in Canada, Pierce felt like they were thriving in the job.
Then a layoff notice came.
Embarrassed and hurt, 34-year-old Pierce, who has autism, said they struggled to understand why they’d been let go. So they turned to the Autistic Translator, an AI tool where you type in a situation you’re trying to understand, and it gives the unspoken nuances of social situations.
After describing their situation, the translator generated a response: In bullet points, the AI told Pierce how their persistent questions and search for feedback was interpreted by their supervisors as incompetence.
“It was kind of eye opening for me,” Pierce said. Pierce found it easier to understand feedback that was devoid of human emotion or expression. AI tools such as the Autistic Translator and Goblin Tools claim that they can help people with autism better understand social situations. Many autism researchers are optimistic about AI, believing it to be a valuable tool to complement other therapeutic tools. But many experts and users agree that these AI tools — helpful as they are — still need a lot of work.
Autistic Translator and similar tools are especially helpful for people with autism because those people generally think in terms of rules, said Elizabeth Laugeson, clinical professor and director of UCLA’s Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, who works with autistic individuals to develop social skills and maintain relationships. Laugeson is cautious about AI beyond yes/no prompts. That’s because AI doesn’t understand the social nuances, context or conversational patterns needed to provide accurate and helpful responses.
“If we have an overreliance on an AI to navigate the social situation then we might also be discouraging things like self-advocacy or personalized support … which we know are really critical for their growth and for independence,” Laugeson said.
Autistic Translator was built using advice from therapists, and the bot generates answers based on published scientific research and responses in online forums about autism. Its founder, Michael Daniel, who is autistic and has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says its instant responses make the AI chatbot helpful and popular among users.
“I found it really took the emotional sting out of the situation and helped process through those things much faster than I normally would’ve,” Daniel said in an interview.
The 34-year-old created Autistic Translator from his home in Newcastle, Australia, after losing his job in August. Daniel, who has both a son and daughter with ADHD and autism, says that living in a household with multiple neurotypes makes it difficult to communicate. He thought that if he was able to use AI at work to communicate, then he would be able to use it at home. Daniel released the AI tool to the public via a Reddit post, garnering thousands of positive interactions overnight.
Using his background as a data analyst, Daniel built the translator using OpenAI’s ChatGPT models. He says that it is now available for $4-$12 a month, depending on which tier you choose. Daniel has since made the service an app named NeuroTranslator, and extended its translation capabilities to ADHD users. Bram De Buyser has created Goblin Tools – a website with eight different AI chatbots suited for all neurotypes. Goblin Tools does not translate social situations, but tools like “The Formalizer” help users convey their thoughts in the way they want it to be heard to avoid miscommunication. While Goblin Tools doesn’t translate social situations, tools like “The Formalizer” help users convey their thoughts in the way they want it to come across to avoid miscommunication.
AI tools are particularly popular among people on the autism spectrum because unlike humans, AI never gets tired of answering questions, De Buyser said in an interview. “They don’t tire, they don’t get frustrated, and they don’t judge the user for asking anything that a neurotypical might consider weird or out of place,” he said.
Lawrence Fung, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, said the Autistic Translator can be a great tool to improve communication and articulate what is going on in their social settings.
“I think that they can definitely learn from it,” Fung said.
However, autistic people don’t always get the whole picture and because the AI is reliant on the user’s understanding of the situation, it can result in inaccurate outputs, Fung said.
For 22-year-old Eva Dale, understanding the entire picture of certain social situations can be a challenge. She often hears people saying one thing but really meaning something else. Dale’s mom explained that her grandmother was really asking her to walk the dog. Later, Dale’s mom explained that her grandmother was really asking her to walk the dog.
“A lot of times, people say something like the dog has to go out, and it means a secret message like ‘Will you take the dog out?’ They won’t tell you the secret message and expect you to know it,” Dale said.
Skeptical, Dale entered the interaction into the Autistic Translator. She was surprised to find that the response she received from her mother was the same. It’s actually very impressive that it can understand such a wide range of people,” she said.
However, not all users get direct answers. After coming across the Autistic Translator on Reddit, Phillip Lee, a 28-year-old from California, tested out the AI tool on multiple occasions but ultimately decided that he’d prefer to get feedback from the people around him.
Understanding tone, social cues and other nonverbal language has always been a challenge for Lee, who has autism and ADHD. Last year, his graduate program committee reprimanded him for making jokes inappropriately. His frustration grew when he asked the AI: “Why do people get mad when I don’t smile?”
The translator replied, “Neurotypicals often rely on smiles as a nonverbal cue for friendliness, while this might not be a natural expression for autistics.”
This made sense to Lee. Frustrated, Lee sought to better understand his cognitive difference.
Asking the translator how people perceive his mannerisms helped Lee clarify some things, like when he asked the AI: “Why do people get mad when I don’t smile?”
The translator responded, “Neurotypicals often rely on smiles as a nonverbal cue for friendliness, while this might not be a natural expression for autistics.”
This made sense to Lee. As he entered more specific scenarios from his personal life such as “Why do I get so angry?” the responses grew more vague and general, sometimes not even getting a response at all because of the complicated nature of the questions.
Daniel says that users are given a disclaimer about the translator’s capabilities, and that people don’t have to agree with everything the AI tool says. The Autistic Translator is programmed to acknowledge and redirect any questions about complex topics like violence, drugs and medical advice and divert back to communication.
Wary of the AI’s ability to factor in the context and dynamics of his life, Lee prefers to hear feedback directly from his colleagues and family now.
“It’s informational but not holistic enough to suffice as a solution for everything,” Lee said of the AI tool. The autistic experience requires a lot of time and patience. There is no flowchart or road map. The feedback gave Pierce confidence that they had read the situation correctly, and helped them start a conversation. The AI’s response made me feel validated, and even relieved.
