Mr. Mind – AI startup solving elderly social problems

Pangyo Techno Valley, which has an innovative ecosystem capable of starting business, growth, and global business, is packed with global IT companies and innovative game, contents, and bio companies with global capabilities. Mr. Mind, the company that provides a customized chatbot service using the AI technology-based Chatbot Builder and AI Capsule, is contributing to solving future problems of our society approaching the aging society, extending its coverage to mental health in addition to medical consultation and depression prevention for the elderly. 

The first Mr. Mind Chatbot in 2016

Mr. Mind started business in 2016 with the chatbot build, an AI that has the ability to communicate via text or voice, and it is pioneering the senior business market by specializing in making dementia and lonely death robots and chatbot technology. Along with this, Mr. Mind is preparing to provide a Conversation Doll Service that inserts its own AI capsules into dolls or sculptures, allowing the chatbot to exchange of information through voice and vision. CEO Kim Dong-won of Mr. Mind said, “On next year’s Parent’s Day, our “Conversation Doll” will be the best gift that children can show appreciation for parents.”

Mr. Mind’s chatbot-related service is mainly used by local governments for the “care business”. The AI services currently used in the care business can be largely divided into the chatbot service that uses “speakers” and “dolls”. Because people perceive AI speakers as ‘a media device’ rather than an object to interact with. Conversation with it is mainly commands such as ‘Turn on the radio’ and ‘Turn on the TV’.

Especially because it is based on the Internet, the utility value is reduced in an environment where the Internet is not installed. Because of this, the elderly will have more conversation when it is in a form of teddy bear rather than AI speaker. This is why Mr. Mind has provided the chatbot service by inserting AI capsules to dolls. 

Follow your elderly needs

Another advantage of this service is that you can collect, save, and analyze conversations between the elderly and chatbots to monitor users’ emotions and even check their physical health. Mr. Mind trained 1.2 million conversations with the elderly to the chatbot for three years. This time, it has reconstructed 100,000 stories that the elderly use often, creating a chatbot environment that can connect conversations with the elderly in various situations. “Eighty of the elderly households do not have the Internet installed,” said Kim. He added, “Our product even works in where the Internet doesn’t work, with LTE-level speed.”

When the conversation dolls are distributed to the elderly, they will be monitored 365 days and 24 hours a day, and their health will be evaluated by their conditions or voices. So, the guardians and the local government are taking great interest in this. Some local governments are planning to implement this in next year’s pilot project.

Lastly, he said, “Pangyo is one of the best places for active communication because it is packed with the latest IT technology and AI startups. Since Pangyo has a good ecosystem made up of large, medium and small companies, I would like to see more startups use this infrastructure as their testbeds, thus recognized for the value of their products.”