Suwon City Launches AI Counseling Service 'Jump Friends' for Isolated Adolescents and Young Adults

Suwon City in Gyeonggi Province is utilizing artificial intelligence to support counseling services for adolescents and young adults at risk of social isolation.

On September 25, Suwon City announced that it had officially launched 'JUMP FRIENDS,' an empathetic counseling service for high-risk, isolated adolescents and young adults based on generative artificial intelligence (AI), on September 22. This marks the first time such a service has been introduced by a local government in Korea.

Jump Friends is a project that offers 24-hour empathetic counseling services, using generative AI to provide conversations that feel similar to real human interactions, targeting high-risk, isolated adolescents and young adults.

Main screen of 'Jump Friends,' officially opened by Suwon City on the 22nd for counseling isolated at-risk youth and adolescents

The service reaches out to adolescents who find face-to-face contact challenging, providing psychological counseling both online and offline. By analyzing the content and patterns of counseling sessions, the system can detect early warning signs such as loneliness, anxiety, and depression, and identify adolescents and young adults at risk of isolation or withdrawal.

Based on the results of the counseling sessions, Suwon City connects these individuals to in-person counseling and online/offline activity programs operated by organizations such as the Suwon Youth and Young Adult Foundation, supporting their participation in external activities through a 'hybrid counseling model.'

Suwon City had previously conducted a pilot operation of the service starting in March.

A Suwon City official stated, "We hope that Jump Friends, as an AI empathetic companion, will serve as a stepping stone for adolescents and young adults at risk of isolation or withdrawal to regain their daily lives and re-enter society."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.