Campaign initiated by D-ID and Spring ACT in collaboration with Microsoft and UN Women marks International Women’s Day
D-ID, a world leader in generative AI, andSpring ACT, an award-winning non-profit organization that leverages technology to eliminate global injustices, announced today a campaign to use Generative AI to strengthen global online support for victims of domestic violence. Leveraging D-ID’s text-to-video technology, Spring ACT will bring its untraceable online domestic violence chatbotSophia.chat, to life by animating the photorealistic avatar to make it more relatable and accessible. This will enable victims from anywhere in the world to interact with the talking chatbot in several languages including English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Swahili and Chinese Mandarin. Through its Philanthropies program, Microsoft is supporting the Sophia campaign, which leverages Microsoft Azure AI’s text-to-speech capabilities and Azure AI cloud infrastructure.
“One in three women worldwide, approximately 736 million people, are subjected to physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, with over50,000 women killed annually by their partners or family members,” said Adriana Quinones, Head, Human Rights and Development, UN Women, Geneva. “UN Women is inspired by this global collaboration/initiative created to combat the worldwide shortage of governmental and NGO resources and to rectify the lack of knowledge and trust on the part of the victim. We are confident that the Sophia chatbot will reach and help more survivors globally.”
The Sophia chatbot assists victims of domestic violence 24/7, no matter where they are located and in strict confidentiality to feel safe and confident enough to take the first steps to get help. The system uniquely enables complete anonymity by leaving no digital trace for abusers to discover. Based on their specific needs, ‘Sophia’ helps victims to gather potential evidence and seek help in every country in the world. Since its launch in December 2021, more than 15,000 people have chatted with Sophia.
“We developed Sophia to empower survivors of domestic violence to more easily reach out for help and take action,” said Rhiana Spring, CEO at Spring ACT. “We are humbled to be able to now make this service more accessible for survivors no matter their literacy level by animating Sophia with D-ID.”
“We are proud to be collaborating with Spring ACT to help Sophia reach more victims of domestic violence more effectively,” said Shiran Mlamdovsky Somech, social tech entrepreneur and leading Impact at D-ID. “Applying technology to improve life for vulnerable populations is at the core of D-ID’s values. Sophia is an excellent example of how generative AI can massively impact society for the better.”
“At Microsoft, we believe technology is a powerful force for good and everyone should have access to knowledge and benefit from its use,” said Andrew Reid, Global Partner Solutions Director, Microsoft Switzerland. “Domestic violence is a global issue which crosses countries and languages. Leveraging our technology to empower and support survivors of domestic violence demonstrates the strength and power of collaboration and community. We are very pleased to be behind this important initiative together with Spring ACT and D-ID.”
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