Making a difference with a suicide prevention bot

Liv, a college student with a knack for technology, developed a Discord bot aimed at suicide prevention, driven by a desire to learn bot development and make a societal impact. Initially using a simple keyword detection method, the bot quickly gained popularity, prompting Liv to improve its scalability and functionality with a more advanced AI classification system and a comprehensive database of global suicide lifelines. Despite facing challenges such as technical debt, Liv successfully collaborated with other developers to enhance the bot's capabilities, eventually rewriting it from scratch using new technologies. The bot, hosted on repurposed hardware, has been well-received, providing critical support to users, particularly those in the LGBTQIA+ community, who face high suicide risk. Liv emphasizes the importance of learning through doing, encouraging others to pursue their ideas even when they lack a clear roadmap.