Seeking Collaboration for AI-Integrated Exoskeleton Development

Hi OpenAI Community,

I hope everyone is doing well. My name is Emi, and I am an avid follower of OpenAI’s work. Since the release of GPT-3.5, I have been fascinated by the potential of AI to transform lives.

I am reaching out to this wonderful community to seek collaboration on a project that is very close to my heart. I have cerebral palsy, and my lifelong dream has been to achieve independent mobility. Inspired by the advancements in AI, I founded MotionEnhance, a project dedicated to developing an innovative exoskeleton with AI integration. This exoskeleton will adapt to the user’s needs, significantly improving mobility and the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

The current state of exoskeleton technology is promising but still faces challenges such as affordability, weight, efficiency, and user experience. I believe that by leveraging AI, we can overcome these hurdles and create a more intuitive and functional exoskeleton.

Unfortunately, despite my efforts, I haven’t been able to find the right support or partners to bring this project to life. I live in Germany and have reached out to many companies and technical universities, but so far, no one has been willing to provide the necessary support. I’ve often been dismissed or redirected to other organizations, which has been disheartening and has not yielded any tangible results. It is painful to be ignored simply because it supposedly isn’t worth helping someone, despite the resources and financial capabilities available. I know I cannot achieve this alone.

This is why I am reaching out to the OpenAI community – I believe in the power of collective intelligence and collaboration. I am looking for individuals with expertise in AI, robotics, biomechanics, and related fields who are passionate about making a tangible difference. Together, we can demonstrate the transformative potential of AI in assistive technology.

If you are interested or know someone who might be, please get in touch. Let’s make a positive impact and help improve the lives of many.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

Emi
Founder, MotionEnhance

Hey Emi,

I’ve taken a look at your website and ideation and what not, and I have some suggestions to help you on your noble journey to provide mobility to everyone.

First of all, what is the problem you are trying to solve, specifically?
Sure, it’s something something exo-skeletons (?).

You should focus on communicating the issues you and other people with cerebral palsy face every day and what might help you. Become a speaker. Write and participate in the idea market of mobility technology. Have ideas of what could help you, as in technical solutions. Learn how to create hype. When you can be the spokesperson for mobility issues, you can be the face for change, something every mobility tech startup needs. Learn to be a communicator now, and when that has gone somewhere, when you are older, have contacts etc, start the company. Communicator now, founder later. Starting a company is hard, especially in the realm of med-tech and pushing exo-skel tech forward. It’s not going to be possible by asking for help. Those who can help you are extremely busy already. You need to offer something to the equation, that is your story, how it is to live with mobility issues, how the future is bright for this issue if more people take it seriously. How revolutionary tech can be for the human race. Basically just hype up the scene, and create a brand around it and then opportunities will come. The hard part is getting started and/or learning how to communicate in this fashion. Be a speaker and a spokesperson, that is realistic right now. Founder of a super complicated med tech startup from your position, almost impossible.

Regards,
Fredrik.

Hey Fredrik,

Thank you for your valuable advice and for taking an interest in my project. You’ve made some excellent points, and I’d like to clarify my main problem for you.

My main issue is that I cannot maintain my balance when standing without support. My goal is to develop an exoskeleton that helps me overcome this balance challenge. People with cerebral palsy vary greatly; some can walk without assistance, others need support. However, in my case, neither is possible.

I believe that an exoskeleton with integrated AI that adapts to my individual needs could make a significant difference.

Thank you again for your support and helpful suggestions. I will work on improving my communication and visibility to bring more attention to this important cause.

Best regards,
Emi

1 Like

Not a problem man. I would like to clarify two possible paths in very broad strokes you can take to move towards your goals.

The first one is the path I feel like you have been on in terms of reading this thread and your website. It’s the path of the founder.

The path of the founder is very hard. The first thing you need to know is that no-one is going to hand you something for free or for having a loose idea. I mean, it might happen, but that’s not a plan, thats a dream, it’s buying a lottery ticket and hoping. Not a strategy. The reason for that is basically this: That’s not how it works. And there is a good reason for that. If anybody could just have an idea and somebody (and even a group of someones) would invest a lot of money and time in that idea automatically society at large would invest resources into just stuff no-one can tell if it’s a good idea or bad idea or whatever. There needs to be criteria. That is basically what a boot-strapped startup is for. The founder with the idea develops it on their own, for no income, until they have something that solves a problem that needs solving. All the steps on your websites are good steps. It’s a good outline. You should not expect anybody taking you seriously enough to actually help you until you’ve answered basically all of it on your own. There’s money in the problem you have outlined, for sure, but your solution (product) is the path to that money, and if the product doesn’t exist in any other way than your idea, the path for investors or other people does not exist to realistically be able to help you. Answer me this, to yourself primarily, what exactly is the integrated AI going to do? What technology is involved in building an exo-skeleton that helps you walk? How are you going to build that? Have you found a new way to do it that is way better and/or easier? Etc etc ad nauseum. There are a million questions to be answered.

But.

That shouldn’t deter you from working towards this goal, as it is a big problem in society and it is a noble thing to work towards, not just for yourself but for your peers. And it’s not impossible. You just have to find the steps appropriate to get there.

So, you have a goal. A mission statement. That’s good, that’s the first thing you SHOULD have. Help people with cerebral palsy and similar physical challenges to walk on their own or something like that. Very good.

  • The space you are trying to work in is very active and popular, so no issue there.

  • The barrier of entry is very high, because it’s the type of company that researches and builds one product for a long time, costing a lot of money and time.

  • The product you are suggesting is cutting edge and absolutely does require engineers. You don’t have engineers. Engineers are very busy and very expensive.

  • Investors in this space invest in teams of people that are much longer down the path of having a working prototype.

  • You need a sort of working prototype for it to be anything other than an idea.

Hardware is hard. It’s not the right place to start. It’s the right place to move towards long term.

The second path is the one that I see as a possible stepping stone.
It’s the path of the communicator/spokesperson/influencer with a mission:

What do you need to do to get to a place where people listen to you so you can move towards your founder path?
Well you need to prove that the problem you have is something people struggle with. And I mean prove. You can do that by collecting a bunch of people who have this issue and show: here they are, the actual people, those who need this. That’s called a community. Collect your community by talking to people that have this problem and invite them along for the ride. I highly recommend you googling “Do Things That Doesn’t Scale” by Paul Graham and take it to heart. Your discord server is a great start to get people in to. Get a newsletter going? Like email newsletter. Explain your goal and what your ulterior goal is (changing the life of many people) and how you will get there (by shining a light on the issue and eventually using your platform to create some solution that will help). Your goal is to get as many people interested in this as possible, before the money and the product. That’s where, cynically as it may seem, you have a great advantage. Humans love other humans. People who don’t have these issues will listen, as fans, because you are trying to change the world for an under-privileged part of society that have many challenges. Shine a light on what those challenges are, but never complain, people hate complainers, but love changers. Get a social media platform going where you interview people in your community or something like that. Get good at that. Get good at communicating. You will have a community, with insiders, and a fanbase, people who care and share your ideas, struggles and whatever else you are trying to accomplish.

In the meantime, while you are doing that, learn how you, hypothetically would create your original startup. There are a couple thousand things to know and a couple of thousands of questions to be answered. Start answering them. You can use the answers and questions you find along the way to create more interesting stuff for your journey. The story is the process of turning your dream into reality, bit by bit. Somehow. You’ll figure it out I’m sure. You literally will, trust me.

You are going to need a community and a fanbase for the startup anyways. It gives you votes.

Remember that you are going to have to improve every thing you do and learn every step of the way. But it’s not that hard, it’s just long, and you can’t give up. That’s the secret, improve bit by bit and don’t give up, and if something doesn’t work, figure out how you are going to make it work, and if it’s not going to work, figure out why you need it and find an alternative.

This is what I would do in your position.

Good luck,
Fredrik.

Hey Fredrik,

Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response. I really appreciate your insights and advice. Your suggestions have given me a lot to think about and consider moving forward.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.

Best,
Emi