Ample Labs: How Canadian Software Startups Are Using AI to Solve Homelessness.
A conversation with Ample Labs CEO and Founder CG Chen. We chatted about the role of AI in reducing homelessness in Toronto and Vancouver during the pandemic.
How can people at risk of homelessness become technologically empowered to use service-based apps to help organize and navigate their day?
BEYOND the alarmist narratives of Artificial Intelligence there remains minimal attention on the connection between how people use technology to mitigate, reduce, and relieve the pressures and risks of homelessness.
Innovative solutions that capture stories of homelessness are often not in the mainstream lexicon. It’s relatively new to think about the role of harm reduction, technology, and AI for those who are precariously housed. Case-by-case conditions of homelessness often involve a complex set of interwoven circumstances with the homeless system being notoriously difficult to navigate with major key institutions.
How people successfully exit homelessness is often a perplexing and mystifying series of events and decisions with data traceability being fairly uncommon. When homelessness isn’t openly discussed we lose out on opportunities of knowledge sharing when these conversations remain stigmatized.
Toronto and Vancouver both have rural and urban demographics of invisible and visible homelessness. Combined these two major Canadian cities often work cohesively and collaboratively to confront rising instances of homelessness. Canadian observatory Homeless Hub is the largest Canadian open source research institute for all Canadian topics on homelessness such as policy, research, education, media relations, and service based resources. Another co-lead Canadian based research social innovation lab and technology focused observatory on homelessness is Making the Shift which aims for sustainable exiting solutions for homeless youth.
Ontario has deployed Chronic Homelessness Artificial Intelligence Model [CHAI] to predict which residents are at risk of homelessness as shelters surge in capacity and waitlists increase. By using AI to anticipate who is at-risk of homelessness over a period of time people can be prioritized efficiently before slipping into severe circumstances. CHAI saw a 93% success rate in preventing episodic homelessness with an emphasis on protecting personal information as privacy remains a large societal concern on the ethical possibilities of AI.
Vancouver has no shortage of innovative minds. What's cause for concern is the speed of Vancouver deploying innovative solutions to address our own housing crisis. Circa 2015-2017, I previously worked frontline in harm reduction for a low barrier non-profit in the Downtown Eastside before BC declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. With those on ground experiences I strongly seek to understand from what I’ve witnessed that all possibilities are explored to confront homelessness.
Beyond conglomerates of services, BC government cannot ignore innovation to confront the magnitude of various conditions of homelessness including support for those who do this work. Exploring solutions of technology, data and business intelligence analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and blockchain as strategic tools to aid housing crises is now imperative in a pandemic.
During the pandemic I felt called upon to go back to this type of work. Last Summer I was appointed by BC Housing board member Katherine McParland to serve on a provincial council for A Way Home Canada in partnership with BC Coalition to End Youth Homelessness which has given me a new angle for reporting.
New stereotypes of homeless people being left out of professional narratives include remote and WFH realities. WFH is a policy paradox we need to carefully think through. I want to see more homeless people being trained for WFH remote realities especially in Vancouver’s blooming tech sector.
From what I observe I hear stories from those in precarious housing circumstances dealing with intense episodes of isolation as many services pivoted remotely during COVID-19. With provincial youth agreements paused, one nineteen year old male in foster care mentioned how zoom meetings with social workers have made it increasingly hard to balance school, work, and life skills training while planning for the future. I’ve heard common themes of at-risk youth starting to redefine life skills to include learning remote skills to adapt for WFH employment in the pandemic.
Jumping on the theme of technology and innovation to solve homelessness, I wanted to find out how people are searching for resources during the pandemic.
To learn more I reached out to CEO and founder CG Chen of Toronto’s Ample Labs to hear how Vancouver could optimize AI as a prevention tactic for addressing homelessness. Enter Chalmers, an anonymous AI chatbot that matches life-changing services to those in need.
Founded in 2019, Ample Labs has exponentially grown to become a community based non-profit software-as-a-service AI startup. Ample’s focus is social impact including teams of marketers, engineers, designers, researchers, and even an internal board of directors working together to resolve various factors that lead to homelessness. Ample has gone on to successfully engage with public and private sector relations including corporate sponsors such as Google, Twitter, TD Bank, Cisco, Twilio, Manulife, Fiix, Telus, and more.
Read on to learn more about Ample Labs mission and progress of launching Chalmers chatbot in Vancouver and other North American cities:
December 2019: Secured Pre-seed funding for 336,477$ according to Crunchbase from April 2019 - December 2019 (3 rounds total)
July 2019: Ample Labs CEO and Founder CG Chen is featured in Forbes Magazine: “This Canadian Designer Wants To Eliminate Homelessness With A Chatbot”
Partners Ample Labs and Ada announce launch of Chalmers as covered by Financial Post on July 22, 2019. Ada’s platform brings AI and automation for customer experience.
2020: Chalmers expands to 50% of Ontario including Toronto, York, Peel, Barrie, Hamilton, Halton, Durham.
Winter 2021: Ample Labs launches Chalmers Suite and Chalmers Enterprise Core — which provides cutting edge software, AI, and data solutions for various stakeholders to address homelessness in districts, cities, and regions.
Current: Ample’s team is seeking to onboard Chalmers for San Francisco and Vancouver during the pandemic to tackle rising homeless cases in metropolitan areas.
Taylor Simone: What was your early insight for founding Ample Labs? Is there an epiphany or experience you’d like to share?
CG Chen: I was working at a startup as UX designer full-time. A friend of mine called me out of the blue and mentioned he was two weeks away from being evicted. Me and my co-founder [Jordy] we’re around at the time and wanted to help him. [At the time] I remember the process of finding him help extremely frustrating such as spending hours on Google trying to figure out next steps and services. It was incredibly time consuming with little time to act. I had many questions with very few answers. The epiphany for Chalmers came down to “What if we could use AI for speaking and asking questions for help?”
TS: During the building and design stages for Ample Labs and Chalmers why did you choose to explore Artificial Intelligence as a software service for preventing homelessness?
CG: We had began to do user research for people experiencing homelessness. We found one major factor was shame. In other words, they weren’t comfortable asking people for help. We chose AI for a few reasons.
Anonymity — to address the shame factor of those experiencing homelessness.
Conversational solutions — people had difficulty identifying and locating their situation. AI could help with questions and answers by coming up with instant responses and suggestions. Hence why we created an anonymous AI chatbot known as Chalmers.
Potential for growth and technology — not only in the paradigm of software services — Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning could be used for different languages, voice-to-text-or-speech, and the ability to learn overtime.
TS: Could you walk me through how you gained trust working closely with homeless people? There’s often a technology barrier for people who have been systemically targeted or are socially excluded.
Some difficult questions surrounding AI such as surveillance or distrust for institutions include government or policing impacting marginalized populations. What was the process like to get homeless people to trust the tech?
CG: When we built and launched Chalmers the chatbot we ensured it could be used by anyone. They didn’t have to create an account so we weren’t asking or collecting personal information. The product has been out for a year-and-a-half. At the beginning we took an urban co-design approach meaning at every phase of product development we invited people currently experiencing homelessness or prior lived experience to contribute their input for the AI chatbot.
Trust was built by serving the people who we designed the product for by addressing any problems directly. Community building also became central with organizations. We spent tons of time in Toronto or any city or region we launched in. [I’d say] through time and effort we were able to continue gathering honest feedback within select communities.
TS: As you were building your company and gaining more traction with your funding rounds launches began to expand to different cities and regions in Ontario.
Now you’re looking at San Francisco and Vancouver for onboarding. How long does it take to launch Chalmers in new cities?
CG: When we secure funding Chalmers takes only about 12 weeks approximately to be set up in a specific region or city.
TS: Are there challenges with government or corporate support with accessing funding?
CG: Corporate support has been relatively smooth since there’s alignment with other tech companies looking to partner with non-profits. On government side it can be tricky as there hasn’t really been products like Chalmers out there so procurement and vendor management make it difficult to get cities or bureaucracies who traditionally are low risk to invest in something new.
However, I think with COVID-19 the need to access services is more crucial than ever before as these conversations have exacerbated housing issues with people needing quick relief, prevention, and support.
TS: Given the intensity of these conversations what lessons have you learned on leading your company during the pandemic?
Any situations come to mind with adapting to the crisis?
CG: Year 1 of the pandemic we moved people remote quickly. We did keep our office open as an option. We went over health and benefit options with people including mental health by creating an internal resource repository that we could direct people to. We became more intentional in our socials including making time for people to share what they’re going through to build space for open communication lines. As leaders we became familiar with being more communicative with sharing some of our own challenges. The pandemic made us more transparent with each other and through that our bonds have gotten stronger.
When people were laid off within the community people were searching for meaning so we had more job opportunities and options to build on with Ample Labs. I think the keyword is intentionality. How can we be more intentional in how our employees are doing? Besides Chalmers what other resources can we provide? Even telling people to take time off if they’re feeling burnt out or not feeling well. COVID-19 impacted the entire world — as a company or a community it challenges us to be there for one another.
We wanted to be the ones with the solution so we had to confront problems head on.
TS: What’s it like dispelling myths and stigma on technology usage with both visibly and invisibly homeless people? (CG: It’s tremendous)
One previous Canadian startup I interviewed for example ensures people who are marginalized are either employed or tasked to test the software before any beta launch.
As your company grows do you envision employing people with lived experience of homelessness for tech and AI jobs?
CG: We often employ people with lived experience of homelessness.
Our UX research team consists of many individuals with lived experience of homelessness. We actively recruit lived experience hires to ensure people can contribute to the team.
This is one difficult aspect for people to wrap their head around considering how much stigma on homelessness there is so we ensure to educate our corporate sponsors by discussing how people who are hidden homeless or at-risk may be walking down the street and most people wouldn’t know. Even our own friends and family could be these people, the issue of invisible homelessness is more insidious than people like to acknowledge.
Half the time it’s comes education and demystification — we often use the iceberg analogy: What is visibly homelessness and what is traditionally homelessness is roughly 10%. The other 90% are hidden.
The second piece is by providing lots of statistics around mobile and smart phone usage. Often times for people who are homeless their smart phone and wifi access is a lifeline. People use their phones to look for employment, temporary housing, social media, address searches for services, appointments, and more. That’s where the lightbulb usually goes off. People already assume an anonymous AI chatbot like Chalmers would already exist besides people depending on Google since many won’t pick up the phone and call due to fear or shame in dealing with homelessness.
When we do user interviews we often hear a lot of the themes you discuss.
I think once you get past the stigma and myths about who and what people’s needs are by highlighting the thin gap — Say if 1 or 2 unfortunate situations happen for people who are living paycheck to paycheck during skyrocketing housing prices it would follow the risk for homelessness increases. This is what we see happen with the pandemic.
TS: I heard of Ample Labs in January of 2020 right before COVID rampaged global headlines. I thought why isn’t Chalmers chatbot in Vancouver?
Tons of former homeless people I know/knew were either tech-savvy, resourceful, and professionally ambitious due to their crucible life experiences.
As you mentioned CG, gathering data and interviewing people is a challenge since people have to be secretive to improve their housing and personal circumstances — What do you look forward to with expanding Ample Labs?
Any future projects or hopes? Do you want to fill readers in about Chalmers Suite?
CG: Chalmers suite is an extension of our AI and data software services built for cities and municipalities. The purpose is access to real time data and service usage demand. What we're excited about is additional services and new tools for helplines through Chalmers including topics on mental health and domestic violence.
What we found through the COVID-19 pandemic is people talking through the Chalmers chatbot is mental health and domestic violence has risen to the surface in terms of what people are looking for. Another unfortunate realization was more people were coming to the chatbot to share their experiences such as “I have very little savings during the pandemic how do I find a temporary place? What should I do?” The needs of users coming to the app right now outweigh what’s available. Our focus is to scale our services and tools that we offer so Chalmers can triage meaning the goal is for individuals to have versatile options to get connected quickly to the help they need within their communities.
TS: I like the idea of creating for social impact with the tech your team is building —there’s a long term vision for your efforts to improve your products and services that target reducing homelessness.
[In particular with Ample] it’s interesting how emerging narratives of Artificial Intelligence can be optimized for the common good during the pandemic rather than fearing it’s potential for impact.
As we conclude our time is there anything you wish to say? Any positive affirmation or mantra to pass on to people for those reading?
CG: If there is anything encouraging I can say from the work we’ve done is we have learned an incredible amount. I think working to solve homelessness requires humility. Empathy to listen and understand help us come up with solutions. There’s often missed learning opportunities on innovation basically how to use technology for social good.
Part of our product development philosophy is to work very closely with people who are experiencing the problem to build a solution.
I want to say to people who are going through a tough time your experience is valuable and to not give up.
When people find themselves in unfortunate circumstances I think that’s when empathy needs to be elevated especially in a pandemic when many people have been laid off. A good friend of mine once said, ‘the real solution to homelessness isn’t just housing or more this or that.. it comes down to empathy.’ I believe if we can become more empathetic there would be more solutions.
TS: It’s fantastic to hear success stories that counter narratives of fear mongering, inaction, and stigma. Chalmers represents an interesting technology development of how innovation can relieve and prevent loss of housing simply by conversing with an anonymous chatbot.
I like the triage point you previously made about Ample through education and consistently bringing new services and products to the table to fit the needs of those experiencing the problem. It’s an all-encompassing effort.
CG: And I think that’s why we value people with lived experiences vocalizing what they want to see happen with Chalmers. Being passionate is critical as that drives people to give back to the community. What motivates me is knowing people are working to get back on their feet and seeing our products ensure those early steps of success. With documenting success stories — that’s where people need encouragement for those moments of uncertainty to hear from people who have come out on the other side. We will always prioritize lived experience for designing services and products. Creating forums for feedback for those who share their stories is integral to what we do.
TS: I’m excited for your future and what you’ve accomplished. There’s kindred minds in Vancouver who want to see housing problems solved. Keep me in the loop on any developments for Chalmers launching in Vancouver.
CG: Will chat soon! I’ll keep you posted on our journey and progress with Vancouver.
Thanks for reading,
T ♢
Taylor Simone is a freelance journalist and techie crewing for Vancouver’s motion picture industry specializing in conflict resolution, privacy, and reporting.
She’s dispatched for Supernatural, Riverdale, Batwoman, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Nancy Drew, DC Legends, Superman & Lois, Firefly Lane, Zoeys Extraordinary Playlist, Away, Mighty Ducks, Jurassic World: Dominion, The Adam Project, Sonic Hedgehog 2, & many more…
Her debut book If At First You Don’t Succeed is slated for early 2022.
Inquiries and freelance rates.
Sig. taylorsimone@protonmail.com