Can digital help fight domestic violence? In Hong Kong gender-based violence is widespread and often tolerated, because of a deeply rooted societal inequality between men and women. Thus, due to a lack of evidence, victims stay quiet. This app works in the digital space to have an impact in the physical world. Helping victims collect evidence by creating an accurate timetable of abuse. By doing this, the app makes it harder for abusers to gaslight and change the narrative, but it also helps victims build a case for legal proceedings as these recordings can be used as evidence in a court of law.

The digital world is full of apps, but this is the first mobile app that uses AI to detect abuse by recognising the language often used in abusive situations, and helps victims collect legal proof. Studies show that certain verbal phrases accompany abuse and are often shouted by perpetrators in the lead-up to a physical attack. So, we trained our AI to recognise these key phrases in a variety of Cantonese dialects and CANTONESE accented English. When they are heard, the app immediately starts recording the entire incident that follows, helping victims collect proof against their abusers. If the AI determines the incident is escalating, an emergency alert is sent to a pre-determined trusted contact. The information is biometrically protected, and the app is designed to look generic, so abusers don’t recognise it. The information gathered is legal admissible, making it an important step in the battle against gender-based violence.

This app is the first of its kind. Once activated, the app runs automatically in the background and secretly starts recording when the AI picks up any of these abuse words. When the AI detects a potentially life-threatening situation, an emergency alert is sent to a trusted friend. Designed to look like a generic app, it is also biometrically protected so there is no way for the abuser to find or access the recordings. The app has just been launched and is free to download on the Google Play Store. Made in partnership with Women Helping Women Asia, the app has already been released to 6 partner organisations in Hong Kong. The response from all of them has been overwhelmingly positive. At the moment the AI has been trained in Cantonese and CANTONESE accented English, but we are planning to quickly expand to more languages and markets in Asia.

In HK gender-based violence is widespread and often tolerated, due to a deeply rooted societal inequality between men and women. Local sayings like “寧教人打仔莫教人分妻 (abuse is more acceptable than a divorce) are passed on from generation to generation and part of the problem. Using digital to help society with an age-old problem.