What You Ought to Know:
– Slingshot AI introduced the general public launch of Ash, the primary AI designed for remedy, alongside an extension of its Collection A funding spherical. Co-led by Radical Ventures and Forerunner Ventures, this brings the entire capital raised to $93M, with earlier traders a16z, Felicis, and Menlo additionally taking part.
– After 18 months of growth and testing with 50,000 beta customers, Ash is now accessible as a free iOS and Android app, providing deeply customized psychological well being assist to anybody with a cellphone.
Addressing the World Psychological Well being Disaster
The launch of Ash comes at a vital time, because the psychological well being disaster continues to influence hundreds of thousands globally. In 2023, 59.2 million Individuals sought remedy, but studies point out that 54% of individuals fighting their psychological well being don’t obtain any care in any respect.
Slingshot AI is led by co-founder and CEO Daniel Cahn, an skilled AI engineer, and co-founder and President Neil Parikh, an entrepreneur who co-founded and scaled Casper to over $500 million income and IPO. Early testing has already proven Ash increasing entry to evidence-based instruments and remodeling lives, offering assist throughout vital transitions and busy moments.
“We’ve constructed Ash from the bottom as much as deal with this want and supply a brand new kind of assist. Ash understands what actual psychological well being assist seems to be and looks like. Ash will problem you and take you on a therapeutic journey, and ship the precise modality on the proper time,” mentioned Daniel Cahn, co-founder and CEO of Slingshot AI.
How Ash Works: A Particular-Goal Basis Mannequin for Psychology
Not like general-purpose AI assistants, Ash is constructed on a special-purpose basis mannequin for psychology, developed by Slingshot AI over the past 18 months. This specialised mannequin is educated in three phases:
- Pre-training: The mannequin is pre-trained utilizing one of many largest and most numerous datasets of behavioral well being information ever assembled, studying from dozens of therapeutic kinds and approaches (e.g., CBT, DBT, ACT, psychodynamic remedy, motivational interviewing).
- High-quality-tuning: Slingshot’s scientific group fine-tunes Ash to adapt to the precise nuances of AI remedy, together with understanding when to problem, when to remain silent, the best way to deal with vital moments, and acceptable alternatives to finish conversations.
- Reinforcement Studying: Ash regularly improves and adapts every consumer’s expertise based mostly on indicators from the dialog, permitting it to supply extremely knowledgeable and customized assist.
Dr. Derrick Hull, a digital psychological well being pioneer and Scientific R&D Lead at Slingshot AI, defined, “With Ash, we’re not making an attempt to copy conventional remedy in AI kind — we’re creating one thing new. By coaching on actual therapeutic interactions and understanding what truly helps individuals change, we will supply assist that’s each deeply customized and grounded in scientific proof. This isn’t about changing therapists; it’s about making certain that everybody who wants assist can entry it, particularly those that’ve been traditionally underserved by our psychological well being system.”
Knowledgeable & Scientific Advisory Board for Security and Efficacy
To make sure Ash’s security, efficacy, and scientific grounding, Slingshot AI has fashioned an Knowledgeable & Scientific Advisory Board. This board contains globally revered psychological well being specialists, together with:
- Dr. Thomas Insel (former head of the Nationwide Institutes of Psychological Well being, 2002-2015)
- Dr. Devika Bhushan (former Surgeon Common of California)
- Dr. Mark Ungless (Psychologist and Director of Information Science, AI, and Analysis at Psychological Well being Improvements)
- Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy (outstanding psychological well being advocate)
- Patricia Arean (Former Analysis Director of the Nationwide Institutes of Psychological Well being)
- Mahmoud Khedr (Lived Expertise Advocate and Psychological Well being Innovator)
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