Auty: Award-Winning AI Companion for Neurodiversity

Recognized as the "Most Creative" entry in the ByteDance Global Coze AI Challenge, Auty is an AI-powered agent specifically designed to support the daily lives and social interactions of autistic individuals.

The Challenge

Navigating social nuances, managing sensory overload, and maintaining daily routines can be significant challenges for neurodivergent people. Most AI assistants are too generic, lacking the specific empathy and specialized interaction frameworks required to be truly helpful in this context.

The Solution

I built Auty on the Coze platform, focusing on creating a safe, predictable, and supportive environment for its users.

1. Specialized Interaction Modules

Built specific tools for different needs:

• Calming techniques: interactive guidance for sensory regulation
• Social simulation: safe environments to practice conversations and social cues
• Communication aids: text-to-speech and visual card generation for non-verbal users

2. Persona Design

Built a persona that stays clear and predictable without being cold. This involved multi-stage prompting to keep responses consistent across conversation states — important when users may be distressed or in sensory overload.

3. Interaction Design

Simplicity and predictability as hard constraints. The flow is designed to reduce cognitive load: clear language, structured responses, no ambiguity about what happens next.

The Impact

• Won "Most Creative" in the ByteDance Global Coze AI Challenge, recognized by judges for social impact and technical creativity.
• Positive reception from the neurodiversity community, particularly from caregivers and practitioners.
• Referenced as a practical example of specialized prompt engineering for accessibility use cases.

Key Tech

• Platform: Coze (ByteDance)
• Engine: GPT-4 / Claude 3.5 Sonnet
• Methodology: Specialized Prompting, Multi-modal Interaction (Text/Voice/Visual)