TLDR: Building a sophisticated embodied AI agent OSS to help senior citizens but nobody cares - instead biggest AI slop repos that all do the same bs and wrap the same 4 oss-solutiosn get starred like there was no tomorrow. I am discouraged.
Well, I'm building an embodied AI Agent for senior citizens - not AI slop or wrapper, but a real project with high time investment, started to help my aging mother; here is the very short hook:
WHAT: TWINR is an AI Agent for senior citizens; fully open-source, aiming to make AI accessible to people who would really profit of it. TWINR is heavy WIP, but already working if you do some tinkering. I would love to have new contributors
WHY: Due to a sad personal event, I spent the last two weeks 24/7 with my mother who is really not tech-savy at all. Okay, tbh - she does not know how to start a computer or use a smart phone - so the web, AI, everything we use daily in our bubble is out of reach to her. However: She has so many questions and small tasks an AI Agent could handle easily - plus she loves to use her Alexa, as it is controlled by voice and thus natural to communicate with… but, as we all know, it is limited in it’s capabilities.
MISSION: The goal is simple: Make a voice controlled agent that is as non-digital, as haptic and as accessible as possible.
And I guess I am a quite seasoned dev and also working "in AI" since 2010, with a good corporate carreer and still always finding time to develop for 2-4 hours a day, so TWINR is a halfway sophisticated oss project with (in my view) impressive capabilities that DO NOT WRAP existing stuff and claim to be "new" - and I guess a goal (helping older people get into digital and AI) that is (or should be) societal relevant. Now my rant:
NO F'ing thing I do seems to interest ANYBODY. C'mon, the repo has 3 f'ing stars and one of them is mine. I post in reddit? No one cares. I post on linkedIn? I get 30 likes. On the same day I see extremely generic bs getting upvoted like crazy, repos that are obviously the biggest AI slop (e.g. this wifi-body-detection stuff) gets xx K Stars... and I'm sitting here and thinking: WTF? WTF am I doing wrong? Are all people buying attention? Is an AI companion for senior citizens somehow the embodiment of the devil? Please enlighten me.How do I find people interested in co-developing or supporting? It's not about the money, but about building something great that really has an impact on many lives.
Thom
nacozarina•1h ago
if you want to impact seniors, go to your community senior center, talk to the ppl already helping seniors, get on their calendar. They aren’t hanging out on hn or github.
thomheinrich•2h ago
TLDR: Building a sophisticated embodied AI agent OSS to help senior citizens but nobody cares - instead biggest AI slop repos that all do the same bs and wrap the same 4 oss-solutiosn get starred like there was no tomorrow. I am discouraged.
Well, I'm building an embodied AI Agent for senior citizens - not AI slop or wrapper, but a real project with high time investment, started to help my aging mother; here is the very short hook:
WHAT: TWINR is an AI Agent for senior citizens; fully open-source, aiming to make AI accessible to people who would really profit of it. TWINR is heavy WIP, but already working if you do some tinkering. I would love to have new contributors
WHY: Due to a sad personal event, I spent the last two weeks 24/7 with my mother who is really not tech-savy at all. Okay, tbh - she does not know how to start a computer or use a smart phone - so the web, AI, everything we use daily in our bubble is out of reach to her. However: She has so many questions and small tasks an AI Agent could handle easily - plus she loves to use her Alexa, as it is controlled by voice and thus natural to communicate with… but, as we all know, it is limited in it’s capabilities.
MISSION: The goal is simple: Make a voice controlled agent that is as non-digital, as haptic and as accessible as possible.
And I guess I am a quite seasoned dev and also working "in AI" since 2010, with a good corporate carreer and still always finding time to develop for 2-4 hours a day, so TWINR is a halfway sophisticated oss project with (in my view) impressive capabilities that DO NOT WRAP existing stuff and claim to be "new" - and I guess a goal (helping older people get into digital and AI) that is (or should be) societal relevant. Now my rant:
NO F'ing thing I do seems to interest ANYBODY. C'mon, the repo has 3 f'ing stars and one of them is mine. I post in reddit? No one cares. I post on linkedIn? I get 30 likes. On the same day I see extremely generic bs getting upvoted like crazy, repos that are obviously the biggest AI slop (e.g. this wifi-body-detection stuff) gets xx K Stars... and I'm sitting here and thinking: WTF? WTF am I doing wrong? Are all people buying attention? Is an AI companion for senior citizens somehow the embodiment of the devil? Please enlighten me.How do I find people interested in co-developing or supporting? It's not about the money, but about building something great that really has an impact on many lives.
Thom
nacozarina•1h ago