Bestie

Loneliness is a pressing issue that affect many's mental health and well being. See how two teenagers, Carlton and Eric, come up with an AI chatbot that effectively addresses this issue.

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WATCH OUR VID YAY! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67lnNCHW_yM&ab_channel=EricZ

Inspiration

Mental health issue is a pressing problem in today's society, and we can see this happening around us with our peers. We want to address this situation.

What it does

Bestie offers accompany, support, and is always there for users who need it. It is a bot that the user can talk to. This is especially important for the stakeholders we've identified. They include youth, almost 1 out of 4 of which are always lonely (https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/274-you-are-not-alone). Elders, almost 1 out of 4 of which are socially isolated, (https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older-adults.html#:~:text=A%20report%20from%20the%20National,considered%20to%20be%20socially%20isolated). People with social disabilities and lack social skills, who can benefit from using our bot as a stepping stone to actual social interaction. It ensures privacy of conversation, accessibility to all users, and also adaptability. Our product is unique such that it does not want the user to be completely addicted to it, like some other products might, to the point where they are even more unwilling to have human interaction. Instead, we want this to be an opportunity for youth to build their confidence and use it to step out of their comfort zone. This was not meant to be just a direct substitute for human interactions.

How we built it

We used python and got training data for the AI from different libraries.

Challenges we ran into

Time crunch and also getting the bot to adapt itself to different settings for different users' needs.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We can have convos with the bot and NEVER BE LEFT ON SEEN AGAIN! Video editing was kinda nice.

What we learned

Opened up new lenses for new product ideas (really got us to think about health, well being and productivity)

What's next for Bestie

Implementation on multiple platforms to adjust to more diverse demand. Voice features. Encouragement features that help users be more productive with their lives.

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