HappyChat

Create real happiness using artificial intelligence, as you chat anonymously with friends.

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HappyChat

NOTE: The HappyChat web site is viewed best on a tablet, laptop, or desktop using Google Chrome. It may work on other browsers and certainly will later, but for judging purposes please use the preferred environment.

SUMMARY FOR THOSE WITH LITTLE TIME

HappyChat is the first of an exciting new breed of social applications known as machine guided conversation or MGC for short. Using advanced natural language processing algorithms, HappyChat patiently observes a chat in progress and evaluates the positive or negative tone of the conversation, gently nudging the conversation out of potentially negative territory and into happier ones using visual cues and positive reinforcement techniques. No training is required to use it. Just visit the web site using the URL below and start chatting. That’s it!

Introduction

We are social creatures and our greatest happiness comes from sharing with others, especially through fun, lively, discourse. However left unattended, our genetic fascination with frightening and angry thoughts can pollute our discussions and bring us sadness and alienation. Even the best of conversations, especially group ones, can spiral off uncontrollably into negativity. Tragically more often than not a minor insult, or misinterpretation of a comment meant to be humorous, or even just one participant having a moment of confusion or pettiness can refocus the energy of the group into a dark unwanted path.

Machine Guided Conversation (MGC)

HappyChat is the first of an exciting new breed of social applications known as machine guided conversation or MGC for short. Using advanced natural language processing algorithms, HappyChat patiently observes a chat in progress and evaluates the positive or negative tone of the conversation. It is not censorship or an intrusive monitoring or interruption system! Systems like that make people uneasy and disrupt the natural harmony of a discussion. Instead HappyChat gently nudges the participants into healthy, happy discussions using subtle visual cues and gamification. HappyChat was created to inspire people to think happier thoughts and coax them into helping others do the same.

We live in a high power, fast-paced, advertisement driven age of digital media that constantly bombards us with fear and anger in an attempt to grab our attention, to sell us something we usually don’t need. HappyChat is a shining example of how text processing technology and data analytics can be used to make us happier instead. It is completely effortless to use and requires no training. You just talk and have fun!

How It Works

Each participant in the chat room has a happiness rating, which is displayed in a simple bar next to their user ID known as the happiness bar. The bar ranges from dark red (very negative) to bright green (very positive). As chat messages enter the chat room they are sent to our servers for analysis and are rated for their degree of positive or negative tone. The ratings are sent back to the browser and each user’s happiness bar is updated to reflect any recent changes in their tone. This all happens automatically without any effort or intervention by the participants.

Gamification and Positive Peer Pressure

The happiness bars serves as a public reminder of how positive or negative the participants are. This is not meant to be a public shaming of those who stray into negative territory. Instead it is a gentle, adaptive reminder to everyone to stay positive. But to take things a step further an ongoing fun, little game is built into HappyChat and in the most unobtrusive way. It’s the Happiness Guru challenge.

Periodically the servers analyze the sentiment ratings of all the participants and determines who has the highest rating. That person is awarded the honor of the being the Current Happiness Guru and will have their nickname displayed prominently next to the chat room for all to see. To make this reward even sweeter, images related to their most recent topic of conversation will be displayed in the Happy Image Viewer. Since the image will be a bright, positive, happy one it further enhances the good mood of everyone in the chat room.

This creates a synergistic feedback loop of positive energy:

  • First is the social pressure to maintain a high happiness rating and that leads to more positive conversation
  • This activity leads to someone being selected as the Current Happiness Guru

  • That happy event triggers images to appear in the Happy Image Viewer that are related to the Guru’s favorite topic
  • This too improves everyone’s happiness and that further enhances their desire to be more positive, leading back to the first step above.

The happiness rating and the Current Happiness Guru provide continual psychological reward for being happier. This provides healthy, positive reinforcement immediately to the participants, quickly strengthening and rewarding their innate ability and desire to be happy. As a bonus, the Current Happiness Guru award has a built-in level of unpredictability. Since multiple people are likely to reach the maximum happiness rating at the same time, you can never be certain if you’ll be chosen as the Guru. This leverages the power of variable rewards in a good way and provides an extra sub-conscious boost to participants to be as happy as they can and to persuade their fellow chat members to enjoy in the fun. The images in the Happy Image Viewer provide another big treat to the group by allowing them to share something the Current Happiness Guru is passionate about and this joy is shared in two powerful way. First by the sheer act of viewing a funny or happy image, and second by the potential lively discussion they inspire.

As the Swedish proverb says: “Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow.”

Please, try it out! You’ll feel better before you know it. Especially if you share HappyChat with your friends and co-workers too.

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