【Generative AI Hackathon by lablab.ai 】

【lablab.ai 】

Generative AI Hackathon was organised by lablab.ai with 1740 participants worldwide from 2nd to 4th of December Year 2022. If you have not heard of them, I would highly encourage you to check them out. Because, come on, I do not see why not! They provide the latest updates of different AI tools, with mentors and speakers who are patient to guide us through the way as well. While this team is being innovative on its own, they are sharing all of their technical skills, business tips and many more perks, including the tutorials and boilerplate for the community. So again, I do not see why anyone involved in machine learning would reject such a great chance to learn and build a prototype efficiently using the AI tools.

The best part is that they are having hackathons all year long from what I observe for now. So, be sure to join the one matching your time. The participants in each hackathon is growing in numbers. I saw them grow from hundreds to thousands and everyone is eager to build AI prototypes. So, what are you waiting for?

【Brilliant Mentors and Organising Team】

Great big thanks to our mentors who guided us. First, we have awesome Skander Karoui, who discussed with us the ideation, structures and plans to get a big picture of what we could develop.

Also, the legendary Ervin Moore who told us to be extra careful with the training AI model for mental health and got straight-to-the-point with what we could do to solve the errors and bugs when it was urgent before submission. Fine-tuning and prompt engineering, definitely something we must improve on.

Nasti, had been helping people get onboard and checking all the messages in the community and I just could not thank her enough. I would also like to thank Olesia, who is still managing the Discord and other social media platforms extremely well.

【New Native】

New Native is founded by Mathias Asberg and Pawel Czech. I call them the ‘backbone’ of Lablab.ai. Recently, I was curious and browsed through the articles on their websites and gasped. Why did I not know them earlier? They have the top-notched analysis of how AI is going, comparing each tool subjectively and sharing everything with the public selflessly.

If somebody doubts that AI’s market size is small, throw them this article, https://newnative.ai/news/the-ai-economy-and-future-of-ai-natives .

If someone asks you how they could implement AI, throw them this article, https://newnative.ai/blog/ai-is-entering-our-everyday-life.

If they say that training AI models is rather expensive and complain about the complexity of generative AI, throw them this article, https://newnative.ai/blog/the-era-of-the-ai-makers-generative-ai-revolution.

【Nextgrid】

Nextgrid. Well, everything is possible because of the funding. So, I would love to thank the AI accelerator for nurturing the AI projects and making things possible for many talents in the field. I just hope to express how much it means to us!

【Cohere】

Cohere. Such great tools. You would not know what I am talking about until you try them out yourself, play with them and look at what they have in the Sandbox. The tool we used here was Conversant but they have so much more to offer.

While they are providing these tools for the other communities, they are also building a great community of their own that allows everyone to share a demo project during their new co:lab Friday events. Their friendly approaches to the developers are highly appreciated.

【The Exceptional, yet Crazy Ones】

Thanks to myself for being persistent. While I have done tasks that I have lost count of, the best thing that I have done must be creating such a team. And yes, I have proved to many people that a person from the biomedical engineering field could learn new AI tools from scratch. It had been challenging to code the front-end parts, avoid the prototyped app from crashing, design the badge as a 3D model, render the animation, embed the NFT minting link being verified to the interface and much more. I overcome them one by one with the help of the mentors and my adorable team-mates, of course.

Thank you, dear Izabel for all training you have done to the AI model. I still remember how you got to retest until your interface froze, if I remembered it right. You came in as the leader of our technology’s side because of your ability to develop the app with the tools in hand quickly. Using Cohere Conversant to make everything in the mind possible is something insanely cool, of course. Not even mentioning the database selection using a resourceful book and fine-tuning the model yet. Combining your knowledge from the neurocognitive field with machine learning is just powerful. The way you adapt to any new change is to make each challenge seem interesting.

Thank you, dear Kristers for using your great skills in Python to develop and debug the whole thing. As insane as it sounds, we encountered many problems and you are always patiently going through the errors and come back explaining with much details. Your instant replies on the programming errors and help is highly appreciated. Your problem-solving skills are fantastic as well. You were always willing to listen to others' ideas and seek a balance in listening while offering constructive feedback. You’re just amazing!

Thank you, dear Rishav. Your attention to detail and your dedication to creating a comprehensive and well-crafted business plan was truly impressive. After handling the template, I love that you use our own colours and refreshing design for the slides. They were well-arranged and effectively conveyed our team's ideas. I was influenced by your positive attitude and willingness to work together. It helped create a productive and collaborative environment. Oh, I almost forgot! The way you use A.I. to generate our logo is truly impressive. The result is a professional and eye-catching logo that perfectly captures the essence of our team.

Thank you dear Aashutosh. Although you joined us the latest when we finally had an empty slot from our member who’s sick, you picked up everything so well! I found your insights to be incredibly helpful, and I am grateful for the time and effort you put into sharing your knowledge with me. You have no idea how touched I was when you said ‘I could help!’. Your attention to detail in the slides and your ability to incorporate our feedback and suggestions into the project was especially notable.

Just in case anyone is interested in knowing how the teaming process went, here is it. When I created the team with the title ‘Mental Health A.I.’, I was opening up the team thinking that we might have a few talents who would join. To my surprise, so many people pinged me that I got out of the count! Maybe it was also due to the sudden increase in the participants compared to the ones I joined. I was glad to witness and participate the growing stage of lablab.ai. I am quite sure that they would be more impactful that nobody could ignore soon. Of course, we saw the ones who have been joining us early on when the team was not full and stayed until the end. I have pinged the previous team-mates in other hackathons, but you know, we have something in hand sometimes. So, we could work as team-mates in other projects. And, yes, all these insane mental health technology projects, with three of them using AI, are organised under Mental Health Engineering a.k.a. the Mental Health DAO in Web 3. This is to let the community flourish and track all the contributions of the contributors. Before forming organisations, product-creators, start-ups or even corporates, we have a safe space to connect with the people interested in our demonstration and updates.

【Post-hackathon Updates】

Sure, we have more plans. As one of the winning teams from the hackathon, we are excited to announce that we are continuing this project!

We have formed a private Discord group where we continue to discuss the problems and future launch of our project. Yes, we stay connected and collaborate even after the hackathon has ended. We are grateful for the support and guidance we received throughout the event, and we look forward to continuing the actions required to bring our project to life.

Getting off the local host is something where most projects stop. It separates the projects with prototypes in the hackathon era and the MVP-ready ones. So, we have been planning to use the Cohere API credits we would be receiving for it as well.

We would still have our free plans as promised while developing premium packages as the customisable versions for our potential clients.

If you would like to have early access and not miss out our launch, feel free to get it here: https://unique-maker-4480.ck.page/i-rene

Stay tuned for updates on our progress!

【How did you do what you are doing?】

Let me tell you without exposing our exact codes. But we could definitely share you how you could also build your AI project using Conversant from the Cohere Sandbox.

To create I-Rene CBT demo app, we focused on the following parts:

1. Import the necessary packages, such as streamlit and conversantfrom Cohere at the beginning of our script. Also, import any necessary things needed to create the environment required.

2. Initialize the chatbot and set some default page config options using st.set_page_config().

3. Create a top header for your app using st.container() and st.markdown() to add some text and an image.

4. Define a function called get_input() that uses st.text_input() to get input from the user.

5. Use the get_input() function to get user input, and then use the chatbot to generate a reply.

6. Use st.session_state to store the user input and generated replies, and then use message() to display the conversation in the app.

7. Use a database as the input. Trustable, scientifically-based and ethical one.

8. Add a checkbox that allows the user to claim an NFT by navigating to a specific URL.

9. Define a function called load_lottieurl() that uses requests to load a Lottie animation from a URL.

10. Use the load_lottieurl() function to load the Lottie animation, and then use st_lottie to display it in the app.

11. Now, run the app.

12. Train and test.

    This is why I’m unafraid of telling you these steps.

    The things that matter the most would need much more knowledge and practical skills, such as but not limited to the prompt engineering, fine-tuning of the AI model, DAO creating, 3D NFT designing, animation rendering and many more tiny little details of doing those steps with love, care and patience.

【How I-Rene is different from the rest ?】

is turned into:

【How I-Rene is collaborative with the rest ?】

While we love the existing mental health solutions, we identify the problems in the status quo. Not everyone is accessible to the affordable and effective mental health therapies tailored to them. This is such a simple sentence that embodies too many problems, giving me heartache sometimes. Rather than explaining how we could be different from the competitors, I would personally like to say that we are completing certain tasks that are excluded in the field for potential collaboration with our competitors.

Think of it this way. We could be an integration for any mental health platforms and mental health communities.

About that, I would love to show you what AI helps me say.

The following is something generated by ChatGPT by OpenAI to why I-Rene is different from the rest, after we put all our features and problem-solving scenarios as the input:

There are many mental health apps and services available today, but what sets our AI-powered platform apart is our unique approach to addressing mental health concerns. Unlike other mental health apps and services, we use advanced machine learning algorithms to provide personalised and effective support for our users. This allows us to provide targeted, evidence-based recommendations and interventions that can help individuals improve their mental health and well-being. Our approach is based on research and has been shown to be effective in addressing a variety of mental health concerns. Additionally, our platform provides context-dependent answers, meaning that the support we provide is tailored to the individual needs of each user.

The use of AI in our platform allows us to provide support 24/7, ensuring that our users have access to the help they need, whenever they need it. Additionally, we are exploring the use of blockchain technology to track the progress of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions, by minting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for each individual user. This would allow us to provide a transparent and verifiable record of our users' progress, further enhancing the effectiveness of our platform. In short, our AI-powered platform offers a unique and effective solution for addressing mental health concerns, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve and innovate.

The following is something generated by ChatGPT by OpenAI of why you should try out I-Rene:

Are you tired of mental health AI products and services that give generic, one-size-fits-all answers? Well, you're in luck because our platform is different. We provide context-dependent answers that are tailored to the individual needs of our users. But that's not all! Our approach is based on the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which is a proven effective treatment for a variety of mental health concerns. So, not only do our users get personalised support, but they also get the added benefit of receiving interventions that are grounded in evidence-based practices. Plus, our platform is user-friendly and accessible, making it easy for individuals to get the support they need, when they need it. In short, if you want context-dependent, CBT-based support for your mental health, look no further than our revolutionary platform!

【Which category does I-Rene fall in the mental health technology industry?】

I-Rene is currently shifting from the support and self-care tool to the mental health assessment and treatment tool with fine-tuning. It could detect the chat as input that requires a specialised set of context-dependent answers. After with more training following the code of ethics with care, we would achieve a stage of providing specialised CBT with ease.

We are aware of how fast the technology field is accelerating each and every field. So, Artificial Intelligence and blockchain technology are something we use. But hey, we would always be updated and connected with the other technology in the field such as but not limited to the categories as stated in this article about the Mental Health Care Technology Status Quo.

【Would it be easy to be used?】

Yes!I-Rene is a beneficial AI CBT chatbot that can provide many benefits to users. Some of these benefits may include 24/7 access to mental health support, the ability to have confidential context-dependent answers in the conversations, personalised treatment plans, one-click-NFT-minting free of gas fees on the user and the ability to track progress over time. Additionally, AI CBT chatbots can be a cost-effective and convenient for the users who are inaccessible to traditional in-person therapy.

【The other outstanding and brilliant alumni of the hackathon in AI.】

Baith-al-suroor (House of happiness ) as a deeptech solution the power of artificial intelligence to transform your space by Mohammed Arsalan.

vidSummarizer that helps you to analyse sentiment and summarise of your audio or video files into simple text within few seconds by S Deepak Kumar.

Virtual AI Patient as a new way dedicated to medical students in order to help them practice on their virtual patient mimicking the reality by Amine Saied, Younes Ammari, Hijab Naqvi and Muhammad Talha Imran.

Sincerely Mr Darcy as a unique pen pal experience generate a response to our emails in the style of Mr. Darcy, from Pride and Prejudice by Kaiser Pister.

For I-Rene’s demonstration, we would like to handle each step with care as it involves the mental health treatments. We would lower the potential risks and provide the best solution for you, stay tuned for the updates here, getting early access, staying with Mental Health Engineering or keeping an eye on our LinkedIn accounts.

Besides the top 5 teams, including us, all the alumni are brave and excellent in their efforts to learn AI and build wonderful AI projects using the Cohere APIs in this hackathon. I know, I know, prototypes are rather slow now, but bear with us when we get off the local host! As a humble, loving and supportive person, do tell me if there is anything you would like to share or anything I could help. I am proud of our dedication and hard work.

【You could make a project with a humanistic mission too.】

Each hackathon is a unique opportunity to use the power of AI to make a positive impact on people's lives. The theme of the hackathons might use different AI tools, but the missions could always be humanistic. So far, I have personally started 3 mental health AI projects that I created during the hackathons by lablab.ai. The community is beautiful and I believe that we could all work together to develop projects that benefit humanity. Whether your interests lie in mental health, education, or any other area, your talents and knowledge could shine. Let us come together and use AI technology to improve the world. I look forward to your participation.

With love, joy and hope. ♥