South Africa AI: I created chatbot 'aunt' to help abused women after family tragedy

An AI chatbot and app for victims of abuse to get help is being piloted in South Africa.

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Leonora's relative was just 19 years old, and nine months pregnant, when she was killed, her body dumped on the side of a highway near Cape Town in 2020.

"I work in the development sector, so I've seen violence," Leonora says. "But what stood out for me was that my family member's violent death was seen as so normal in South African society.

"Her death wasn't published by any news outlet because the sheer volume of these cases in our country is such that it doesn't qualify as news."

The killer was never caught and what Leonora saw as the silent acceptance of a woman's violent death became the catalyst for her app, Gender Rights in Tech (Grit), which features a chatbot called Zuzi.