Meeno

Thx John Burn-Murdoch & roll on Financial Times festival tmw! Will be grilled by Madhumita Murgia @ 3pm in the Tech Tent.

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Meeno’s first prototypes were created through a close partnership with Andrew Ng’s AI Fund. The fund offers subject matter experts a chance at rapid prototyping with world-class AI/ML engineers, and access to the latest in science and academic research. Andrew and Renate Nyborg, Meeno’s founder, first swapped notes on loneliness trends in October 2022. They discussed their hopes, and fears for the future of society and community, and decided to join forces. Read Andrew’s perspective on #Meeno👇

Meeno is now available in Australia and New Zealand. Search ‘Meeno’ on the App Store. Why we picked AU and NZ 👇

Our founder on the BBC! They discuss how Meeno keeps relationship advice private and secure, how Meeno works with therapists, what people like about AI powered mentoring.

Meeno is in TIME 👀 “Andrew, a 21 year old college senior, needed advice. Recently, he’d been spending more time alone with his friend, but he was beginning to develop romantic feelings for her. He felt he was in a state of limbo, and wanted to take the next step, but found it hard to push himself out of his comfort zone. He tried asking his roommates for help, but they gave conflicting counsel, then proceeded to argue over who was right. Most of his friends are in fraternities and he says they were unlikely to offer tender, thoughtful guidance he was looking for. At a loss, Andrew, who is being referred to by his middle name out of concern for his employment, decided to try something new—asking AI for advice. Meeno, the AI relationship coach that Andrew consulted, didn’t suggest anything groundbreaking. But just the process of chatting with the app, and reading advice on the screen that confirmed his own instinct to confess his feelings, gave Andrew the confidence he needed. “I kind of use it as a mentor,” says Andrew. “When I need help, I can reach [for] it. It's not going to be affecting all facets of my life. But when I do have a social situation that I feel uncomfortable or indecisive when trying to figure out what to do, I think Meeno would be a great way to solve that.” Renate Nyborg, 38, says she founded Meeno in November 2022 to try and address the increase in loneliness among young people, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Users can consult Meeno about any relationship—friends, colleagues, parents—not just romantic partners. “This generation was lacking even basic social skills, because they spent two years at home staring at screens not being able to pick up basic body language. The conclusion for me was really that this wasn't really a clinical problem. This wasn't depression. It was actually just not having learned to speak a language,” says Nyborg, who was previously the CEO of Tinder. “It's a skill that you can learn, but if you haven't had the chance to practice it, then you don't know how to do it.”

Meeno is front-page news on YLE (the finnish BBC). I love that they also interviewed a Finnish psychologist, excerpt below. 👇 Thank you Miina Väisänen for this detailed and thoughtful interview. **** Psychologist Ville Ritola has a positive attitude towards artificial intelligence applications like Meeno. According to him, loneliness is a threat affecting society as a whole, which has significant effects on both people's psychological and physical health. “It is not realistic to think that the problem of loneliness can only be solved with the help of professionals. It is necessary to act at all levels.” Ritola sees it as useful that the application helps its users name their feelings and strive for concrete actions to improve human relationships. “Directing action is more important in the treatment and prevention of loneliness than thinking about a situation exhaustively.” According to Ritola, applications like Meeno benefit especially those who would not otherwise seek help. He is not afraid that artificial intelligence applications will make mental health professionals useless, on the contrary. “Human contact is so important to us as a species that it is not very easy, if even possible, to replace it.”

just launched Meeno in finland. world premiere. we want to build our relationship mentoring app with you, for you. we hope you enjoy it. please message me and Meeno your thoughts. Meeno helps with social anxiety, and improving relationships—from friends to family, from love to work. (so yes. we’ll finnish first, then start ;)