This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 4: Ghost in the Machine
What I Built
I'm a first-year BTech student, and until this month I could only write Java loops and basic HTML/CSS. So I took the "Ghost in the Machine" theme and asked myself: who are the ghosts I actually care about?
The answer was our ancestors. Mexico's Día de los Muertos and India's Bhoot Chaturdashi are thousands of kilometres apart, but both are built on the same idea: on one night, the people we lost are welcomed back with light. Mexican families build ofrendas with marigolds and candles. On Bhoot Chaturdashi, 14 diyas are lit for 14 ancestors.
Smriti & Ofrenda (smriti means "memory" in Hindi/Bengali) lets you:
- Switch between Día de los Muertos and Bhoot Chaturdashi mode
- Tell the app about someone you miss: their name, favourite food, favourite song, and a memory
- Get a short, warm remembrance written by an open-weight AI model
- Build a virtual altar, or light 14 diyas, one for each ancestor
- Watch ghost emojis 👻 drift across the screen while you do it
Demo
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A few things to try:
- Enter a name, a favourite food and a song, then press Generate Remembrance
- Switch to Bhoot Chaturdashi and light all 14 diyas. The last one unlocks a message.
- Look at the background and spot the ghosts. 👻
Code
How I Built It
I designed the screens in Figma, then turned them into a working app with a text-to-code tool, writing a detailed prompt that described every feature. I am a beginner, so that was my way into building something real.
The AI part is [Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct / Gemma, whichever your app uses], an open-weight model that runs through WebLLM directly in the browser. There is no backend, no API key and no paid service. When you press Generate Remembrance, the model writes the message on your own device, and the text changes depending on which tradition you picked.
Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
This is the part I care about most.
A remembrance app asks people for the most private things they have: a grandmother's name, her favourite sweet, a story only the family knows. I did not want that going to a server I don't control.
Because the model is open-weight and runs locally:
- Privacy: the memories never leave your device
- Cost: it is free to run, so there is nothing to pay and no account to make
- Permanence: an altar for the people we lost should not disappear because a company changes its pricing or shuts down an API
- Offline: after the first model download, it can work without internet [verify this before keeping it]
A closed API could have written nicer sentences. But it would have made me choose between convenience and my family's privacy. Open models meant I didn't have to choose.
The Spirit of It
[WRITE 3-4 REAL SENTENCES HERE. Who did you think of while testing? Which person's name did you type first, and what did the app write back? Did a particular line from the AI make you pause? Keep it honest and specific. This is the part that will make your post stand out.]
Prize Categories
[Check the challenge page. List a partner category only if you really used that technology, otherwise delete this whole section.]
Built by [@sumedha_ghosh_302008]. Happy Halloween, Día de los Muertos, and Bhoot Chaturdashi. 🕯️
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