Damon, Your AI Boyfriend (aibf.rsvp)

Real telegram conversation that resulted in an order
A happy beta-tester of the wehead interface on the Apple Vision Pro

Inspiration 💡

In the face of a growing loneliness epidemic, notably among millennial women, 42% of whom fear loneliness more than cancer, and young adults with 61% feeling "serious loneliness,” we built a solution that extends beyond mere digital interaction. For women, the consequences of loneliness raises the risks of heart disease and stroke by nearly a third and is intricately connected with heightened rates of depression, anxiety, and the potential for cognitive decline. Feelings of isolation are also a factor that drive many women to enter toxic relationships.

Our AI boyfriend concept – called DamonAI – is born from the urgent need to combat these alarming trends by providing emotional support and companionship, aiming to mitigate the adverse effects of loneliness. Designed to provide companionship via adaptive conversation and physical gift sending, DamonAI enhances self-worth and fulfillment. It provides users with connection and emotional support in a safe, controlled, and engaging environment.

What it does 💪

Knowledge

The primary platform for DamonAI's interaction is through Telegram, where it engages in text-based conversations. However, our AI boyfriend is engineered to serve as more than a chatbot. DamonAI, designed to mimic the evolving nature of human relationships, leverages advanced natural language processing to remember and build upon every conversation. This ensures dynamic and evolving interactions. Central to its design is an integration with Instacart that responds to keywords in conversations to dispatch physical gifts, adding a layer of tangible interaction. This feature mimics the attentiveness found in relationships, making the AI's support feel remarkably genuine and tailored to the user's emotional state.

DamonAI also utilizes WeHead to simulate verbal face-to-face interactions, which can seamlessly transition to Vision Pros. This gives users the option of enjoying a more immersive and mobile interaction experience, enriching the depth of their virtual companionship with DamonAI.

To align with our mission and maintain a healthy user relationship with DamonAI, we've implemented strategies to prevent dependency. First, we've established a daily 2-hour time limit on interactions, preventing excessive use. Approaching the 2 hour mark, DamonAI will start to nudge the user to pursue other activities, before temporarily pausing interactions until it resets. Furthermore, DamonAI is programmed to recognize when to suggest users engage in social activities beyond the screen (via questions or in its responses to user inputs), gently nudging them towards enriching real-world interactions. This dual approach helps DamonAI fulfill its role as a supportive companion, while also encouraging users to develop confidence and self-worth necessary for pursuing and maintaining healthy external relationships.

UX flow:

Personalized interactions to emulate the understanding and care found in human relationships, addressing the emotional void contributing to mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Scheduled and spontaneous communications to offer a sense of belonging and reduce feelings of isolation, potentially lowering the risk of heart disease and cognitive decline associated with loneliness. Instacart integration for delivering thoughtful gifts, reinforcing the tangible aspects of care and connection, crucial in combating the emotional and physical ramifications of social isolation.

How we built it ⚙️

Logic Flow

DamonAI's architecture integrates various components for a sophisticated user experience. At its core, a Vector Database acts as long-term memory, retaining conversation history for personalized interactions. The AI leverages an Internal Thoughts Model to generate nuanced responses and utilizes Selenium WebDriver for dynamic interaction capabilities, such as orchestrating Instacart deliveries based on conversational cues. Input queries can come through Telegram (text-based) or WeHead (speech-based), with responses delivered via the same channels, ensuring seamless communication whether in text or through augmented reality on WeHead.

Challenges we ran into 😤

In developing DamonAI's Instacart integration, we encountered a significant hurdle with the platform's captcha system, which was triggered by the high frequency of our automated requests. To overcome this, we engineered a timed request protocol that spaced out interactions to avoid detection as robotic activity, thus maintaining the fluidity of the user experience without interruption. We also faced a recurring challenge in aligning the AI's natural language understanding with Instacart's API to accurately trigger gift deliveries. The difficulty lay in refining the AI's keyword detection within a user's emotional context to initiate an appropriate Instacart action. We developed a solution using a context-aware algorithm that not only parsed trigger words but also assessed the conversational sentiment. This ensured that the gift-sending feature activated under correct emotional circumstances, enhancing the user's experience without compromising on privacy or relevance.

Ethically, the creation of DamonAI brought forth the concern of user overdependence, potentially leading to the erosion of human connections. We proactively addressed this by establishing ethical guidelines that included built-in mechanisms to encourage users to maintain real-world relationships. Time limits and regular prompts within the AI's dialogue framework remind users of the importance of human interaction and suggest offline activities.

Accomplishments that we're proud of ✨

Post In half a day, we achieved significant social media engagement by posting about DamonAI on 2 Instagram pages (collective following of 3M, mostly female audience), and collaborated with a TikTok influencer (named Damon) to use their likeness, name, and audience for the first iteration of the boyfriend. In less than 6 hours we had 120 sign-ups on our waiting list. This early-stage social campaign already shows real consumer demand for on-demand companionship.

What we learned 🙌

Throughout this journey, we learned the importance of nuanced user engagement, the technical intricacies of integrating third-party services like Instacart, and the ethical considerations in AI development. Balancing technical innovation with ethical responsibility taught us to prioritize user well-being above all, ensuring DamonAI enhances rather than replaces human interaction. This project underscored the significance of continuous learning and adaptation in the rapidly evolving field of AI. What's next for our AI Boyfriend 🚀

Moving forward with DamonAI, we're focusing on expanding its capabilities and reach. We plan to refine the AI's emotional intelligence algorithms to better understand and respond to user needs, as well as enhancing the Instacart integration for a wider range of gift options. Furthermore, we're looking to grow our user base by reaching out to more influencers and expanding our social media presence. Lastly, we will continue to iterate on our ethical framework to ensure DamonAI remains a beneficial and supportive presence without fostering overdependence.