A Peer-Led, Artificial Intelligence-Augmented Social Network Intervention to Prevent HIV Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness.

Background: Youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) are at elevated risk of HIV/AIDS and disproportionately identify as racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender minorities. We developed a new peer change agent (PCA) HIV prevention intervention with 3 arms: (1) an arm using an artificial intelligence (AI) planning algorithm to select PCAs; (2) a popularity arm, the standard PCA approach, operationalized as highest degree centrality (DC); and (3) an observation-only comparison group.

Setting: A total of 713 YEH were recruited from 3 drop-in centers in Los Angeles, CA.