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What if AI could help prevent sexual assault before it happens — without tracking users, judging them, or handing them a verdict?
In this episode of Just Now Possible, Teresa Torres talks with Priya Nakra (Founder and Product Lead) and Olivia Rowley (AI Advisor and Board Member) of Override Labs, a nonprofit building technology to prevent gender-based violence. Their flagship product, Is This Okay? (ITO), gives teenage boys a private, judgment-free space to reflect on ambiguous sexual scenarios — with AI guidance grounded in clinical research and motivational interviewing.
Priya and Olivia share how they built ITO from scratch: scraping Reddit to validate the need, partnering with a licensed therapist to design the eval rubric, and building a risk classification system that runs before Claude is ever invoked. Every design decision — from skipping account creation to removing the concept of a "green light" response — was made with one goal: never let the product be used to justify harm.
You'll hear how they defined a "South star" instead of a North star, how clinical expertise shaped the AI's tone and structure, and why a nonprofit context unlocks design choices that growth-focused companies simply can't make. It's a masterclass in purpose-built AI product development when the goal isn't scale — it's prevention.
Show Notes
Guests:
- Priya Nakra, Founder and Product Lead, Override Labs
- Olivia Rowley, AI Advisor and Board Member, Override Labs
In this episode
- Why Priya left a 10-year tech career to found a nonprofit focused on gender-based violence prevention
- How scraping 2,000 Reddit posts per subreddit validated demand for a consent reflection tool
- Why Override Labs defined a "South star" — the worst-case outcome — and designed the product to avoid it
- How a licensed therapist and positive masculinity coaches shaped the product's tone and eval rubric
- Why the product never gives a "green flag" response — and what it offers instead
- How risk classification runs deterministically before Claude is ever called, then tailors the response by tier
- The three-part response structure grounded in motivational interviewing: validate, reflect, invite reflection
- Why "privacy by design" meant no accounts, no cookies, no cross-session tracking — and how that became a feature
- The challenge of measuring prevention when success means something didn't happen
- How Override Labs is building a product ecosystem: a women's tool, a web game as a top-of-funnel, and a future institutional API layer
Resources & Links
- Override Labs — Building technology to prevent harm from gender-based violence
- The Fund to Prevent Sexual Assault — The philanthropic incubator that funded Override Labs' first cohort
Chapters
00:00 Meet Priya and Olivia
00:50 Why Override Labs Exists
02:11 From Tech to Mission
04:51 Is Technology Good
07:49 Narrowing to Teen Consent
11:07 Researching Teen Scenarios
14:33 Clinical Guidance and Tone
16:48 Designing for Reflection
20:51 Prototype to Product Flow
24:46 Risk Tiers and Evals
28:10 Defining the Conversation Goal
29:35 Motivational Interviewing Framework
31:37 Measuring Real World Impact
35:39 Privacy First Data Practices
40:29 Reaching Teens With Ads
41:56 Web Game Funnel Strategy
44:30 Funding and Institutional Pathways
46:50 UX for Sensitive Moments
49:34 Matching the Older Brother Tone
52:09 Building Safe AI for Prevention
54:35 Closing Thoughts and Thanks
Full Transcript
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