Creativity and AI – Machine Learning for Autism

Did you know that 1 in every 100 kids in this world is diagnosed with autism? And this number is on the rise. Depending on severity of their diagnosis, these children have difficulty in performing regular tasks. They are also highly sensitive and find it very difficult to express emotion. Imagine a child of your age wanting to express themselves, but not being able to do so. What if you could help make things better with technology? Let's take a trip into the world of machine learning. Machine learning (ML) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows software applications to become more accurate at predicting outcomes without being explicitly programmed to do so. What sorcery is this?! If you are wondering about the machine uprising, fear not. Man over many years has built Machine learning algorithms which use historical data as input to predict new output values. For your project, let's build a machine learning algorithm to help people who are autistic to express themselves to others. Imagine you have an autistic friend named Jay. You might go up to Jay and tell him that you really like his new dress. Jay might want to show you that he is happy with your nice comment but can't. Your machine learning program will come in handy here which will predict Jay's response to your comment and show you what he wants to say. The response can be interesting faces with expressions or even funny memes! Similarly when someone is being mean, the response can be triggered by your machine learning program. Let's get started and help Jay!