Justin Stone is a typical teen with problems at home and in school. Questioned by a shrink, he avoids eye contact, shrugs, and gets increasingly irritated. When asked "What brings you here today?" he answers, "My parents think I f**ked up." You could almost swear he was real.

Scientists at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies have developed virtual 16-year-old therapy patients who can be interviewed and diagnosed on a computer screen. Besides Justin, there's Justina, a sexual-assault victim. Albert "Skip" Rizzo, a psychologist and research scientist at ICT, says that since traumatized individuals are some of the most difficult to treat, having a virtual patient is helpful, allowing therapists to practice interviewing without fear of sending their patient into a tailspin. "You can tape the interview and then go back and look critically at bits and pieces of it," says Caroly Pataki, a child and adolescent psychiatrist working with scientists at ICT.

Justin and Justina are part of ICT's Virtual Humans Project, which created human agents for the U.S. military to use in teaching negotiation skills to soldiers. Justin can already recognize several thousand words and sentences, says Patrick Kenny, the project's lead architect. Although commercialization of the software is still several years away, Rizzo says the aim is to create virtual patients "with just about every condition that requires an interview and a patient history."

After the clinician makes a diagnosis, the program feeds back a performance critique. Right now psychiatry students at USC's Keck School of Medicine are using it, and ICT is looking to collaborate with other researchers and university medical centers. Rizzo says, "this is revolutionizing the way therapists are trained."