ember.ai

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  Ember.ai

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  sharing your feeling

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  see everyone that have same feeling like you

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  anonymously share your feelings

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  emergency situation popup

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  you can draw something in your mind

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  emergency helplines

Inspiration

It's 3 a.m. and something feels heavy, but you can't say it to anyone you know. 1 in 6 people feel lonely, and most people who die by suicide never told anyone how they felt (WHO). We wanted a quiet, anonymous place where saying how you feel is a small creative act, and where someone always answers.

What it does

You write a few honest words and release them into a shared night sky. AI turns each feeling into a unique lantern with its own colours, glow, shape and ambient sound. Lanterns with the same feeling connect into constellations, so you see you're not alone. Anyone can answer with a note, voice note, drawing or sticker, and if no one does, Ember (our AI, always labelled) replies in a warm, spoken voice. Lanterns fade after 24 hours. Crisis messages are never silenced: they get the right helpline for your country, a breathing exercise and an instant calm reply.

How it fits AI + Creativity

"Build an AI-powered experience that introduces a new way for people to create, collaborate, express ideas, or experience art and media."

• AI-powered: AI is the medium, not a bolted-on chatbot. It turns every feeling into a lantern, reads the feeling behind untagged words, keeps the space safe, and answers in a warm spoken voice when no one else has.
• Create: no drawing or composing needed. Say how you feel, and AI turns it into a one-of-a-kind piece of light and sound.
• Collaborate: strangers build one shared artwork together, the night sky. Feelings link into constellations, and people answer each other with notes, voice, drawings and stickers.
• Express ideas: anonymous, with no profiles or likes, so people can finally say what they never say out loud, in words, voice or a drawing.
• Experience art and media: a living audiovisual sky to explore. Hear each lantern's soundscape, and watch the sky change as feelings arrive and fade after 24 hours.

How we built it

React + Vite frontend on a pannable canvas of SVG lanterns. Supabase for the database, realtime updates and one Edge Function that handles every write. Featherless (Qwen 2.5) designs the lanterns, moderates and writes replies, with Gemini as backup and for checking voice notes and drawings. ElevenLabs gives Ember its voice. Hosted on Vercel.

Challenges we ran into

Keeping the space safe without silencing pain: hate is blocked, but "I can't do this anymore" gets help, not a block. Keeping AI fast enough that posting never feels stuck. And proving ownership for notifications and deletes without any accounts.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A live, working product: lanterns, four ways to reply, notifications, thank-you hearts and real crisis care. And a sky that becomes a shared artwork made of people's feelings.

What we learned

How to design AI around wellbeing: moderation, crisis detection, honest AI labels, and fallbacks so the app keeps working for someone who needs it, even when an AI service is down.

What's next for Ember

More languages and verified local helplines, optional accounts that keep anonymity, and community guidelines shaped with mental-health professionals.

Built With

• elevenlabs
• fetherless
• react
• typescript