Bully this robot and you'll see the effects on a teenage brain

Artificial intelligence meets cyberbullying in a new project by nonprofit Stomp Out Bullying, which has built an AI platform designed to show the damaging effect online bullying has on a teenage brain. 

Stomp worked with Grey New York and Dr. Jeff Gardere, a mental health expert and professor at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in NYC, to create "Emma," a platform that processes negative social media posts.

Created based on clinical studies, "Emma" is designed to understand language and intent in each of the comments. She then associates the level of toxicity based on a scale, with toxic comments sparking a systemic effect in the platform's architecture based on real scientific data—for example affecting her memory, temperature and CPU. The system is designed to simulate the emotional, physical, and psychological effects as a teenager's brain does when being bullied.

The platform can be accessed at bullyingemma.com, and is designed for parents and educators as well as teenagers themselves.

“Through science, we see that kids really do suffer emotionally, not just physically from bullying,” say Dr. Gardere in a statement. “I believe that Emma could be an incredible teaching tool because if we can help teens understand what happens when bullying occurs, we can empower them to do better.”