Startup Manifest thinks AI can solve global loneliness

As we continue to see global loneliness levels soar and as technology becomes much better at assessing and responding to human emotions, as well as plays a pivotal role in the new field of tele-psychiatry, Amy Wu, founder of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) based mental health app Manifest, has a bold prediction for the next wave of tech.

“Separately from the AI trend, I think so many people are seeing this loneliness epidemic that’s happening with Gen Z,” she said. “There is no doubt in my mind that there will be unicorns that emerge from those categories to address the loneliness epidemic.”

Manifest isn’t quite a unicorn yet — it’s only in its seed stage, having just raised $3.4 million from a16z Speedrun and a number of other investors. But Wu sees her company as part of a new crop of products trying to mitigate a rise in loneliness.

Wu is in her late twenties, right on the cusp of the murky boundary between millennials and Gen Z, but she understands the struggles of the younger generation. A report from Cigna found that three out of five adults report that they sometimes or always feel lonely; that number is even higher among respondents aged 18-22, at 73%. Manifest is the app she wishes she had when she was an undergraduate at Stanford, navigating a competitive, intimidating environment while living on her own for the first time.

“I really felt like the real world punched me in the face,” Wu told TechCrunch. “I feel like school teaches you all these things around, here’s how to get a job at Facebook, or Google, or Microsoft, or Goldman Sachs, but it doesn’t teach you how to go build your own emotional toolkit.”

When you open the Manifest app, you’ll see a pastel gradient orb in the center of the screen. You can hold the button to talk, or tap it to type, in response to a number of prompts: “What’s on your mind?,” “What are you worried about?,” or “What would be useful for us to talk about?”

Then, the app’s AI will mirror your language and turn it into an affirmation, which you can turn into a personalized audio meditation.

For example, if you tell the app that you’re finding it hard to be proud of yourself after running a 5K because you got last place in your age group it will spit out a couple of affirmations, like, “I strive to appreciate my progress, no matter how small,” or, “I trust that my commitment to this process will lead to growth in both my physical and mental health.”

Maybe those words of AI-generated wisdom help. Maybe they don’t. But Manifest isn’t meant to be an end-all-be-all mental health solution or a replacement for actual mental health treatment. Instead, Manifest is designed to be something that you can use for a few minutes every day to feel just a little bit more grounded.

“We are a wellness app that’s really kind of designed to meet Gen Z where they’re already at,” Wu said. “The real core thesis behind Manifest was like, can we make these bite-sized interactions with wellness super easy and super delightful, where it doesn’t feel like a chore to go do Manifest?”

In a time when young people are overwhelmed by the constant noise of social media, it may seem counterintuitive to use technology - let alone something that can feel as impersonal and amorphous as AI - to address loneliness. But Wu thinks that if Gen Z is already sucked into their phones, then wellness needs to happen there, too.

“Gen Z is hanging out way less in person,” she said. “So, it’s like, what do you give a generation that we’ve already done this to? Like, the idea that you tell that person to go outside and hang with their friend is an astronomical leap for them, so how do you go and give them something where they’re already at?”

Manifest launched in stealth this summer, and so far, users have generated 18.7 million “manifestations” in the app.

As with any app of its nature, Manifest has to navigate the ethical challenges around making a consumer mental health product with no medical backing. Wu said that there are safeguards embedded in Manifest’s AI, such as redirecting users to a suicide hotline if they mention self-harm. There are some topics like this that Manifest will decline to engage with.

From a risk standpoint, this could be a smart move for Manifest - it’s dangerous to leverage an experimental AI as a tool to help with something as serious as preventing self-harm. But other startups battling loneliness, like chatbot company Nomi AI, take a different approach. When Nomi AI users open up about thoughts of self-harm, the AI companions won’t halt the conversation - instead, they will try to de-escalate the situation by talking the user through their feelings.

Alex Cardinell, the founder of Nomi AI, argues that just stopping a conversation and providing a suicide hotline number could be alienating to someone who’s struggling for connection.

“I want to make those users feel heard in whatever their dark moment is, because that’s how you get someone to open up, how you get someone to reconsider their way of thinking,” Cardinell said in a recent conversation. “I really want to look at what’s aligned with the user, rather than what’s aligned with the strictest attorney’s loss mitigation strategy.”

Wu doesn’t think that Manifest, or any consumer app, is where people should go if they are in a situation where they need legitimate medical help. But young people are turning to these tools when seeking real medical care isn’t accessible. So, if Wu is right about the impending unicorn startups that will combat the loneliness epidemic, those companies - and Manifest - will need to tread thoughtfully.