Life coaching as an industry fully emerged in the 1990s and has exploded into a $2 billion global industry with nearly 50,000 certified life coaches (ICF, 2012). With the rapid growth and many different programs and educational platforms, there is a need to define the exact scope of what life coaching entails. 

Coaching is a method that has proven useful in enhancing personal insight and in shaping and reinforcing desired behavior within many different contexts. In recent years, coaching has received special attention as a method to improve healthy lifestyle behaviors. 

It is well-known that having the insight and resources needed to make choices that foster a healthy lifestyle is essential for patients. A healthy lifestyle is important for optimal outcomes in patient care and to prevent many of the lifestyle diseases that are dramatically increasing in frequency during these years.  

Coaching has developed from a wide range of disciplines and is based on broad academic knowledge, including cognitive and behavioral psychology, social science, positive psychology, and organizational change and development. There is no precise definition of coaching, but it has been described as a method to "unlock a person's potential to maximize their performance" to encourage patients to acknowledge their creativity and to find their unique solutions by focusing on the present and being goal oriented. 

AI life coach 

Earlier this year, Google, locked in an accelerating competition with rivals like Microsoft and OpenAI to develop AI technology, was looking for ways to put a charge into its AI research. Google's DeepMind is now testing new tools that could turn generative AI, the technology behind Chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard, into a personal life coach.  

Google DeepMind has been working with generative AI to perform at least 21 types of personal and professional tasks, including tools to give users life advice, ideas, planning instructions and tutoring tops, according to documents and other materials reviewed by The New York Times.   

The project indicated the urgency of Google's effort to propel itself to the front of the AI pack and signalled its increasing willingness to trust AI systems with sensitive tasks. 

Building the model 

Scale AI, a contractor working with Google DeepMind, assembled teams of workers to test the capabilities, including more than 100 experts with doctorates in different fields and even more workers who assess the tool's response, said two people with knowledge of the project who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. 

The workers are testing the assistant's ability to answer questions about challenges in people's lives. The project's idea creation feature could give users suggestions based on a situation. Its tutoring function can teach new skills or improve existing ones, like how to progress as a runner, and the planning capability can create a financial budget for users as well as meal and workout plans.  

Google AI's safety experts said in December that users could experience "diminished health and well-being" and a "loss of agency" if they took life advice from AI. They added that some users who grew too dependent on the technology could think it was sentient.  

 According to the New York Times report, Google's DeepMind spokeswoman they have long worked with various partners to evaluate our research and products across Google, which is a critical step in building safe and helpful technology.