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News highlights
Oct 5, 2026, 08:00
As Taiwan officially enters a super-aged society, the rising number of elderly citizens living independently creates growing challenges for family caregiving. Geographies, career demands, and busy schedules often prevent family members from tracking subtle daily changes in sleep, nutrition, mood, or medication compliance, elevating long-term health risks.
Addressing this societal challenge, team “Grandma, Where Are You” developed “Neighborhood” (Cuo-Bin), a generative AI-powered smart companionship platform built around personalized AI family digital twins. Competing in the “ADI: Digital Innovation and Regional Regeneration” category, the team won top honors at the 2026 Taiwan Generative AI Applications Hackathon, organized by DIGITIMES under the guidance of the Administration for Digital Industries (ADI), Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA). Amazon Web Services (AWS) served as the AI technology provider, delivering the generative AI and cloud services that powered the solutions. ,
Converting Everyday Conversations into Actionable Care Insights
“Neighborhood” uses family-authorized profiles to generate avatar representations of relatives, allowing seniors to engage in natural Mandarin or Taiwanese interactions that rely on generic personas and lack emotional connection, “Neighborhood” leverages familiar family figures to encourage open conversation, capturing wellness indicators seamlessly without requiring seniors to log data or complete forms manually
Beyond emotional companionship, the platform establishes an end-to-end care pipeline. As seniors chat with their AI family avatar, the backend system analyzes daily wellness signals and transmits real-time alert notifications to family members when anomalies are detected, transforming casual conversation into a continuous health-monitoring gateway.
Prioritizing Responsible AI Governance, Data Security, and Trust
Recognizing the sensitivities around elderly care, the team embedded strict AI governance and cybersecurity frameworks into the platform. Creating an AI family avatar requires explicit authorization and photo verified by relatives. To prevent seniors from confusing the avatar with a live human video call, the interface explicitly displays an “AI Companionship Mode” indicator. Furthermore, knowledge outputs are anchored to verified government databases and official health education materials, backed by strict privacy controls to mitigate AI hallucinations.
The judges praised the solution for addressing core pain points in elder care—specifically physical distance, social isolation, and delayed detection of health anomalies. Moving forward, the team envisions “Neighborhood” serving as a trusted extension of family care, lightening the burden on caregivers while delivering timely, empathetic support to seniors.
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