Concept:

We started this project thinking about incels and how to engage them in society. Incels are an internet group of “involuntarily celibate” people, who claim that they are unable to receive sexual or romantic attention despite their desires to. They are often alone and segregated from society, and these feelings can snowball into a larger mental health problem.

Futurity: Visible Friend

We thought about how to solve for this isolation and loneliness, and came up with a two-way mirror that has inside of it a bot that represents yourself. In essence, you can talk to yourself. So you say something to yourself in the morning like “I feel worthless, and I don’t have a place in the world.” The bot inside records it, reviews it, and then sends back a prescribed conversation. The mirror can act as a mental health professional and talk you through your worries.

Looking Forward:

This idea focuses on an asynchronous and scalable future for the mental health realm. With technology like this, we can unburden our existing mental health professionals, and expand AI’s use in this field to work on a large scale. With the help of AI, we can impact millions more people in a more efficient way.