Self Cav, an innovative AI chatbot set to launch this month, designed to provide young South Africans with essential mental and sexual health support.
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A new AI chatbot, Self Cav, that is set to be launched this month, aims to provide young South Africans with access to crucial mental health and sexual health services.
The AI-driven self-care platform, developed by Audere Africa in partnership with Shout-It-Now, will be accessible to youth of all ages and genders across South Africa and includes multilingual chat support and additional features.
According to Dr Dino Rech, CEO of Audere Africa, answers are not standard, as in traditional chatbots, where everyone who asks a question gets the same answer, but instead is tailored for each individual.
“Based on the conversations you've had to date with the companion, information collected, their style of speaking, and selected persona (i.e. bestie vs clinician), answers are pulled from the knowledge base, augmented with information needed from the model itself, and customised to ensure understanding by the client.”
The launch comes after the success of AIMEE, which stands for AI & me, an AI-powered chatbot launched in South Africa in March 2025 that offered reproductive support and a safe, confidential space for young women and girls to talk about what’s bothering them, with linkage to free live nurse support.
Since its launch, AIMEE has held over 15,000 conversations - nearly half of which have been in-depth repeat interactions covering topics from abuse, family conflict, and gender-based violence to school stress, sexual health, bullying, break-ups, and employment worries.
AIMEE’s pilot programme will transition to Self-Cav, an initiative supported by the National Department of Health.
“Current users (of AIMEE) will be seamlessly transitioned to Self-Cav, where they can keep chatting with AIMEE without having to repeat their story. Young women have told us their boyfriends, brothers, and male friends also need a trusted space, so Self-Cav will introduce new personas, including a male friend and a health buddy, to make sure everyone can access judgement-free support,” said Dr Ntombifikile Mtshali, CEO of Shout-It-Now.
Asked about how the chatbot will deal with issues of self-harm, Rech said they have been using OpenAI's moderation API to flag potential cases of self-harm.
“These cases are immediately, automatically escalated to a clinician who follows-up directly with the client. The client is offered a real-time 24/7 helpline when disclosing thoughts of self-harm. In addition to this, the full conversation is also reviewed by an automated monitoring system and sent automatically for labelling by trained humans-in-the-loop which helps us improve the system.”
Rech added that cases of GBV are flagged in the same manner.
The chatbot is available via WhatsApp and uses data only through WhatsApp.
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