Work

AI4Health: A Narrative-Centered Educational Game for AI-Infused Biomedical Career Exploration

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: As AI becomes increasingly central to healthcare and biomedical research, there is a growing need for tools that introduce students to AI in engaging, authentic contexts. This paper presents AI4Health, a narrative-centered educational game that places middle school students in the role of a medical intern investigating real-world health mysteries. In the game's first episode, players gather evidence, interview characters, and use machine learning models with different training data and performance characteristics. Through branching dialogue and contextual problem-solving, players explore the impact of training data on model reliability and consider the ethical implications of AI-assisted diagnosis. This paper showcases the core mechanics, dialogue system, and interactive narrative structure that support AI literacy and health career exploration, and highlights plans to extend the game through additional biomedical scenarios and classroom integration.

Source: IEEE Conference on Games (CoG)

DOI: 10.1109/cog64752.2025.11114206

Authors: Bradford Mott, Jessica Vandenberg, Carlos Penilla, Sean Hennigan, James Lester, Elizabeth Ozer

Institutions: North Carolina State University, University of California, San Francisco

Language: English

Topic: Educational Games and Gamification

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences