Youth experiencing homelessness are at risk for HIV and need interventions to prevent risky sex behaviors. We tested the feasibility of using artificial intelligence (AI) to select peer change agents (PCAs) to deliver HIV prevention messages among youth experiencing homelessness. Method: We used a pretestposttest quasi-experimental design. In the AI condition (n 5 62), 11 PCAs were selected via AI algorithm; in the popularity comparison (n 5 55), 11 PCAs were selected 6 months later based on maximum degree centrality (most ties to others in the network). All PCAs were trained to promote HIV testing and condom use among their peers. Participants were clients at a drop-in center in Los Angeles, CA. HIV testing and condom use were assessed via a self-administered, computer-based survey at baseline (n 5 117), 1 month (n 5 86, 74%), and 3 months (n 5 70, 60%). Results: At 3 months, rates of HIV testing increased among participants in the AI condition relative to the comparison group (18.8% vs. 8.1%), as did condom use during anal sex (12.1% vs. 3.3%) and vaginal sex (29.2% vs. 23.7%). Conclusions: AI-enhanced PCA intervention is a feasible method for engaging youth experiencing homelessness in HIV prevention.

This paper reports on results obtained by deploying HEALER and DOSIM (two AI agents for social influence maximization) in the real-world, which assist service providers in maximizing HIV awareness in real-world homeless-youth social networks. These agents recommend key "seed" nodes in social networks, i.e., homeless youth who would maximize HIV awareness in their real-world social network. While prior research on these agents published promising simulation results from the lab, the usability of these AI agents in the real-world was unknown. This paper presents results from three real-world pilot studies involving 173 homeless youth across two different homeless shelters in Los Angeles. The results from these pilot studies illustrate that HEALER and DOSIM outperform the current modus operandi of service providers by ~160% in terms of information spread about HIV among homeless youth.

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