A South African developer introduces chatbot Zuzi to support the sufferers of gender-based violence with the help of the Grit app.

Social innovator and South African Leonora Tima have recently introduced Grit, an online project with an AI-powered chatbot, Zuzi, to assist survivors of gender-based violence. Tima began to design the chatbot after being inspired by the murder of her pregnant relative in 2020 to create the virtual environment that will help victims get a safe space to discuss, gather evidence, and receive immediate assistance.

The chatbot is designed in collaboration with Mozilla, the Gates Foundation, and the Patrick McGovern Foundation and provides guidance and emotional support, as well as connects the users with the local resources. Grit is among the first African-created AI chatbots, and it has more than 13,000 users, which means that it attempts to address abuse.

Even though global women's rights activists applaud its innovation, the work of chatbots cannot substitute the empathy of man when treating trauma, as experts are warning. Nevertheless, the conversational design by Zuzi, which is based on the friendliness of an aunt figure, is meant to establish trust in the community where the victims tend to fear reporting of abuse.

Tima thinks that the success of the chatbot lies in the variety of creators bringing the AI that would reflect the realities of Africans.