Dear EA Community
I am a machine learning researcher at Rasa. We develop open source tools for creators to build "conversational assistants", which help people interact with automated systems via plain text. Within the research team, we are thinking about building an assistant using our own product, so we can better understand where its weaknesses are. Ideally, we would team up with some external non-profit organization that would specify the use case. We would build their assistant according to their specifications and in return gain access to the conversation data that the assistant collects. We are also keen on doing some good with this project. Thus, my question is: What organization could do the most good with a conversational AI assistant?
Using Rasa, an organization can reduce the cost of customer service or optimize internal processes. Have a look at our Community Showcase and our Customer Stories to see some of the things people have built with Rasa. While we are committed to make our product work well in any language, English would be ideal for research purposes (so the entire team can understand the content of the messages).
This request is entirely non-committal. We are just playing with the idea at this point and explore our options. I am happy to answer any questions you might have.
Kind regards
Johannes
Hey Johannes, I don't have ideas for a strictly speaking EA org, but here are some examples where chat bots have helped in public/social sector or humanitarian contexts -- perhaps they can give you some ideas on NGO partners who may benefit:
• DoNotPay, a "robot lawyer" app that uses NLP models to provide legal advice to users, has assisted people with asylum applications in the US and Canada
• HelloVote, which helps voters find voting information and sends reminders to vote
• UNICEF's U-Report collects opinions from marginalized communities from around the world, which can provide information relevant for decisions by governments and non-profits
• Raheem.ai allows people across the US to report on police conduct and partners with communities to use data collected to hold police accountable
• GYANT, a chat bot that provides diagnosis and advice based on symptoms reported, including assessing the likelihood that someone has COVID-19 and Zika
• Praekelt, a South African non-profit, has a few mobile health programs, including HealthConnect which has provided information on COVID-19 (some NLP elements), and MomConnect, an SMS-based help desk to provide health advice to new mothers (no NLP elements so far but it is being explored; languages are not English)