It was late. The apartment felt a little too
still. I had one of those days that make you
doubt everything that you're building. Normally,
I'd call my parents. But they were a half a world
away. So, half joking, half missing them, I opened
a note and typed, what would mom and dad say
right now? That single line became the seed of
an app. And maybe one of the most personal AI
projects I've ever made. Welcome back to Data
and AI with Mukundan. The show where we learn
AI by building. Today, we're not building another
data tool. We're building something closer to
the heart. A little companion that speaks in
the voice of people who love us. It's called,
what would mom and dad say? And it started because
I missed hearing my parents' advice. When life
gets noisy, the simplest comfort is someone who
reminds you who you are. For me, that was my
parents. Mom is empathy, dad is practicality.
She'd ask how I feel and he'd ask what I'll do
next. When they left after visiting me, the apartment
felt weightless. So I thought, could I capture
a tiny echo of their voices? That was the goal.
Not to replace them but to hold a small piece
of their wisdom close, especially on nights like
that. You don't need code to understand this
next part. All you need are three plain English
prompts. Let's look at the first prompt which
is the parent profile prompt. This tells the
AI who it's pretending to be. You can write it
in your notes app. You can say, you are my mom.
You speak with warmth and reflection. You remind
me to slow down, to rest, to see the good in
myself. You often share small stories from childhood
and end with gentle encouragement. And for dad,
it could be you are my dad. You're practical,
calm and funny. You ask guiding questions, focus
on next steps and always end with a simple plan.
That's it. That becomes the personality file.
The emotion prompt. This helps the AI notice
the feeling before it replies. Say this aloud
or type it. You can say, first tell me what emotion
you hear in my message. It can be fear, stress,
guilt, excitement, or hope. Then respond like
the parent I chose. It keeps the response anchored
in empathy. And finally, let's look at the response
prompt. Finally, the structure that makes it
feel human. So in your reply, do three things.
Start by acknowledging what I'm feeling. Share
a short memory or a piece of advice that fits.
And end with one encouraging question that helps
me think forward. That's it. There's no tech
talk, no formatting, just conversational instructions.
That's what powers emotional AI. Not code, but
clarity. Let's look at the part where we are
trying this for the first time. Now, when I typed,
I feel like I'm failing at everything. The agent
which had the mom's voice, it said, My dear,
remember when you learned to ride a bike? You
fell so many times, yet you never gave up. This
is another one of those wobbles before balance.
And dad's voice said, Alright. What's one thing
you actually handled well today? Start there.
Because momentum beats perfection every single
time. I laughed and cried in the same minute.
Because, well, it wasn't perfect but it felt
real enough to heal a little bit. Now, here's
what building this taught me. Empathy. isn't
built with algorithms. It's built with intent.
When you create prompts like these, you're really
teaching a machine to slow down. You're giving
it permission to be human -sized, quiet, kind,
and curious. If you've ever built your own emotional
AI, keep these plain rules. Always validate first.
Because people don't need fixing. They need feeling.
Second, tell a story. Because memory always connects
faster than logic. And finally, end with a question.
Because curiosity reopens the mind. That's emotional
AI in one sentence. Now, let's look at boundaries
and ethics that I wanted to have while I was
building this. I needed guardrails. Because every
session here begins with a line that says, this
is a reflection tool, not therapy. I'm here to
help you pause and think, not to diagnose. Because,
see, it's a reminder that technology can comfort.
But obviously it's not meant to replace connection.
Not meant to replace any kind of human connection.
And of course, it's not meant to replace my own
parents. It's just an additional tool. And I
also made sure the messages stay local. That
is, no uploads, no analytics. Because feelings,
they are in metrics. Maybe for some people, but
not for me. Well, if you make your own version,
promise yourself this. Protect privacy the way
you'd protect a conversation with your own parents.
What this really taught me. Building what would
mom and dad say changed how I think about AI.
Because we keep thinking, you know, machines.
should know more about us so that they can give
better suggestions. But we also do realize that
when we are providing more data, we keep teaching
these machines to sound intelligent. Or maybe
the next leap is teaching them to sound kind.
AI can't love you. It's not human. Humans love
or maybe like animals do, right? It's not a living
thing. It's artificial. But it can remind you
of the people who do. And sometimes that reminder
is enough to keep you going. Because empathy
isn't a feature. It's a design decision. And
it starts with the words you chose in a prompt.
Here's my message to you. So tonight, when life
feels heavy, open a note on your phone. Type
one of those prompts. Let AI answer like someone
who cares about you. Not because it's magic.
Because it's you. Programming kindness back into
your own world. That's what technology is supposed
to do. Not replace love. but help you reflect
it. If you want to try this offline, remember
these three voice prompts. One is a parent profile
prompt, where you can describe the person's tone
and typical phrases. An emotion prompt, where
you ask the AI to name what it hears first. And
what feeling it hears first, really. And the
third response prompt where you ask it to validate,
tell a short story, and end with one hopeful
question. That's all you need. No coding, no
app, just words. And if you've already followed
me so far, you'd know that I also use Riverside
.fm, which is one of my partners for... recording
my podcast it has amazing ai tools helps you
record your podcast with ease you can distribute
it to multiple platforms you can create one one
magical clip you can create tiktok videos from
it so a lot of things you can do with just one
one episode so That's a great tool I'd recommend.
And I'd obviously recommend RSS .com, which is
my hosting platform for my podcast. This helps
me to distribute my podcast to multiple platforms,
including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, obviously,
but also platforms like TuneIn, Amazon Music,
Audible, Deezer. and many other platforms like
this and of course it allows you to publish to
youtube too don't forget that rss .com has a
feature to allow you to get paid with just 10
downloads a month so using what they call as
a paid feature which is programmatic ad insertion
and it's done dynamically so inside your podcast
There'll be ads which are inserted dynamically
by their program. And you can get paid if someone
listens to those ads. So that's a great way to
get paid. And all you need is just 10 downloads
a month. So I would highly recommend RSS .com
if you choose to host your platform, host your
podcast, right? Thanks for listening in. I'm
Mukundan and this was Data and AI with Mukundan.
See you next week.