for creating an AI-powered chatbot that provides information around Sexual and Reproductive health
Initiative: SnehAI – AI companion for young people
Organisation: Population Foundation of India
Website: www.populationfoundation.in
Location: Delhi, India
SnehAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot that addresses the concerns of the youth regarding virginity, masturbation, menstruation, contraception and other sexual and reproductive health topics. It uses a mixture of two languages — Hindi and English or Hinglish, on social media including video and GIFs to make the textual material more engaging. The character Sneha is drawn from the popular television character — Dr. Sneha who stars in ‘Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon’. The chatbot can be found embedded in Facebook Messenger and is compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to maintain user privacy since it is a taboo.
Until August, 2020 — the chatbot of Population Foundation of India has hosted over 8million conversations, more than 1,40,000 regular users with an average of 9 minute per session, and has noted 30% increase in female participation after shifting to NLP based chatbot.