Conversational assistant
Live in Arraial do Cabo as Atcheza. Answers on coastal regulation and local knowledge, via WhatsApp and web chat, with cited sources.
An AI assistant grounded in the knowledge and practices of Arraial do Cabo's artisanal fishing community. It connects this knowledge with the rules and research that shape life on the coast, bringing a local, cultural and territorial perspective to conservation. Over time, it will grow into a living knowledge infrastructure for the territory.
Evolving from an open Q&A assistant into
a community-controlled data system.
Live in Arraial do Cabo as Atcheza. Answers on coastal regulation and local knowledge, via WhatsApp and web chat, with cited sources.
Evolving into a two-way data exchange. Communities can submit field observations with explicit consent, accessible offline via SMS.
Communities govern their own archives, with data held in community-controlled, decentralized infrastructure.
scales
the information.
anchors
the meaning.
Roots and Algorithms, co-directed by Francielly Monteiro and Lucas Silva Pereira, is a documentary series in which frontline communities tell stories of artisanal fishing, mangrove restoration, urban resilience and women-led community work.
The Berlin Startup Stipendium supports the early work, alongside participation in the ClimateX programme.
Benthos launches its first public AI assistant, built to make conservation knowledge more useful, traceable and accessible for coastal communities.
Roots and Algorithms releases its first episode, filmed in Arraial do Cabo.
The EXIST-Women fellowship, from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, supports the work that follows.
Mikoko Bot is announced for Tudor Creek, Mombasa, an assistant co-developed with local partners to support coastal knowledge in Swahili.
Benthos is incorporated in Berlin as a gGmbH, a German non-profit company.
Atcheza launches in Arraial do Cabo. A conversational assistant built on local knowledge, answering in Portuguese by text and voice.
For European coordinators, we are a straightforward partner to contract: a German non-profit, in the same jurisdiction, with the same reporting framework.
We are a technical partner in research programmes and grant proposals. That covers data governance, community co-design and the community-facing layer. A system only sees what its builders thought to include.
Project budgets cover the work. Communities never pay. Community autonomy is in the design from the start. We do not work on oil and gas, offshore mining or carbon schemes we do not consider sound.