Introducing Slingshot

We’re excited to announce the launch of Slingshot AI - the AI mental health research lab training the first foundation model for psychology. We're partnering with mental health providers across the globe to help them provide the best support to everyone, everywhere.

We are developing the technology that would have helped us in the toughest moments of our past, and that we hope will help all of us in the future. We invite you to join our mission:

‍If you’re a mental health clinic and are interested in partnering to use our models within your organization, please reach out to us at hello [at] slingshot [dot] xyz

Note from Neil:

‍A decade ago, I dropped out of medical school to start the sleep company, Casper. I came to realize the impact of sleep on mental health - and the impact of mental health on everyone. The current mental health crisis is impacting every single one of us. We all know someone who’s struggling and needs help. In 2022, 55.8M American adults received mental healthcare. And among the younger generation, things are getting even worse. Here’s something I read just this past week:

“A 2023 study of American college students found that 37% reported feeling anxious ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’ while an additional 31% felt this way ‘about half the time.’ Which means that only one-third of college students said they feel anxiety less than half the time or never.” (The Anxious Generation)

Despite the overwhelming need, it is estimated that there is only one mental health provider for every 1,000 to 10,000 people seeking care. And you probably don’t need statistics to know that problems like substance abuse, eating disorders, depression and suicide are in states of crisis.

On a personal level, I’ve been privileged to have access incredible support — and I’ve seen firsthand how the therapeutic process can change people’s minds and their lives, including mine. I’ve helped friends find therapists, sent dozens to the Hoffman Process, and invested in many digital health companies helping increase access to care.

Over the last 18 months, I had been looking for a co-founder to start an AI lab focused on mental health. Six months ago, I met Sequoia AI investor, David Cahn, in line at a coffee bar. We spent hours talking about life and philosophy, and he introduced me to his brother, Daniel, who had the exact same ambition.

I took a walk with Daniel that Sunday and learned that he and I have been living seemingly parallel lives - we both dropped out of school, shared similar values and struggles in our personal lives, and had a deep connection to mental health, which he had studied in college and done research in after. Daniel understands how AI models and the human mind work better than anyone I’ve ever met (in fact, his podcast Thinking Machines is about the intersection of philosophy and AI).

Daniel and I have interviewed over 100 therapists and mental health leaders. We were positively surprised to hear how much people in the space had thinking about using AI to take on the massive latent demand they were facing. Therapists are looking for offerings to the people on their waiting lists, struggling with subclinical issues like stress, loneliness, sadness, navigating life changes like jobs and relationships, developing healthy habits, re-adjusting post-discharge. On the other end, people in mental health crisis also need more support. Every crisis line we talk to is overwhelmed by demand, and significantly understaffed and under resourced.

After our walk, Daniel and I mapped out the Slingshot Master Plan on a whiteboard. We’ve spent the last six months since building an incredible mission-oriented team and bringing our plan to life.

Note from Daniel:

Not quite a decade ago, I read Tim Urban’s blog post on AI and dropped everything to understand AI and how it would change the world. I mean that literally - I dropped out of high school not long after.

I studied philosophy of psychology in my undergrad, then focused my post-graduate research at Imperial on machine learning for understanding and supporting individuals in mental health crises. As the son of a psychologist and a social worker, I realized that technology (on net) has probably been making our mental health worse. And I think that with AI, we have the opportunity and the obligation to make people’s lives better. 

If it’s not obvious by now, I want to say outright that we take our mission extraordinarily seriously. We probably have the longest required reading list of any AI company - and it’s because we know that this project has the potential to be one of the most consequential projects of our time.

Our Ask:

At Slingshot, we’re building the first foundation model for mental health. We believe in a world where there is abundant access to help, and where AI fits into and enhances the landscape of mental health support across the spectrum of needs, from helping people directly to assisting providers to deliver better care. AI has the potential to increase - not decrease - people’s sense of autonomy, competence and connection to other people.

To do that, we’re partnering with mental health organizations around the world to build together. If you’re a mental healthcare provider, we want to collaborate with you, learn from you, and offer our technology to support your community. We have partnerships with top organizations in the mental health space, and we’ll be announcing more about those partnerships soon. If you’re looking to expand what you can offer the people who come to you for support, please drop us a note at neil [at] slingshot [dot] xyz.

We’re looking to grow our team of missionaries. We’re conducting novel applied research, including aligning models for effective long-term trajectories. If you have experience training language models, drop Daniel a note at danielc [at] slingshot [dot] xyz.