Upset about Trump’s win? This penguin chatbot helps combat depression

It’s a sunny Friday morning in Bangalore and I’m sitting in a café with married startup duo Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati. Over coffee, Ramakant is telling me about driving in Bangalore, and I sit in bemused fascination as the two carry out a conversation with timing straight out of a Harry Potter book.

“I mean, I’m a pretty bad driver,” he begins. “You’re not,” Jo interjects. “I’m a good driver, but…” “Road rage,” Jo chimes in. “That’s very kind of you, but I get hassled, and probably Bangalore is the worst place to drive because people cut in front of you.” Ramakant is used to driving in London, Jo informs me.

It’s actually that I’m scared.

His road rage was “ugly,” he says, and that’s when Jo started using cognitive behavioral techniques on him to try to find the root of the anger.

“I realized that it’s actually that I’m scared,” he explains – scared of hitting people in the streets, particularly children. “That’s the thought that’s creating the way [I] feel about the situation.”

Now he tries to avoid the city’s narrow roads, something that costs him a little more time but makes him “a much happier person.”

“It worked in a very subtle manner over three to four months,” he reveals.

It’s that type of experience that he and Jo are trying to bring to people over an app. Founders of predictive care startup Touchkin, their newest project is “happiness buddy” Wysa, an emotional wellness AI chatbot available for download on Android and iOS. The bot is still under development, but it’s out there to help the startup’s team fine-tune the app’s responses.

My day with Wysa

I got to try out Wysa for myself. The chatbot comes to you in the form of an adorable, chubby penguin that can talk to you about your feelings, guide you through mindfulness meditation, or lead you through exercises that range from stretching out the cramps in your neck to assisted squats.

Checking in, telling Wysa how you feel, and doing these different exercises allow the app to build a picture of how you’re doing. At the end of a week, it gives you a summary of your emotions and habits. If it reckons you’re feeling down, it will run a depression sensing test on you called the PHQ9. If the test indicates you’re depressed, the app will recommend you see a doctor.

You can also hook it up to health apps on your phone so it can track your physical activity and moods from there.

From London to penguins

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