Inspiration
The inspiration behind Boop stems from the growing concern over mental health issues exacerbated by social media. We aimed to create a tool that leverages artificial intelligence to detect early signs of self-harm and mental distress, providing a proactive approach to support and safeguard individuals.
What it does
Boop analyzes social media posts using a sophisticated AI model trained on extensive datasets. It assesses the likelihood of self-harm by examining the sentiment and content of a user's posts, offering mental health professionals and caregivers actionable insights to intervene and offer help.
How we built it
We built Boop using Python, Flask for the backend, and React for a dynamic frontend. The core of our application relies on the BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) model for natural language processing and sentiment analysis, trained with a dataset specifically curated for detecting signs of self-harm and suicidal ideation. We then fine-tuned the model with a custom dataset, specializing the model for analyzing social media text.
Challenges we ran into
One of the main challenges was accurately training the model to distinguish between different types of posts without generating false positives. Ensuring user privacy and data security also presented significant hurdles. Balancing sensitivity and specificity in the model's predictions required extensive testing and refinement.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud of developing a tool that can potentially save lives by identifying at-risk individuals on social media. Successfully integrating complex AI into a user-friendly platform accessible to non-technical users, like parents or caregivers, stands as a significant achievement for us.
What we learned
Throughout this project, we learned the intricacies of natural language processing and the ethical considerations of deploying AI in sensitive areas like mental health. We also gained insights into the importance of privacy and data protection in building applications that handle personal information.
What's next for Boop
Moving forward, Boop aims to expand its capabilities by supporting more social media platforms and languages, making it a globally accessible tool. We plan to refine our AI model for greater accuracy and explore partnerships with mental health organizations to reach and assist a broader audience.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.