On The Room podcast, Slingshot AI co-founder and CEO Neil Parikh connected his Casper journey to his next act: building a foundation model for psychology behind the app Ash, backed by $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Felicis. He framed the stakes around a societal gap, the US being roughly 50,000 psychologists short, with year-long waits even at top systems, a shortfall he expects AI-driven changes to work and identity to widen. Rather than packaging one method into an app, Parikh said Slingshot learns directly from human therapy, much like a self-driving car learns from real drivers, using partnerships to build one of the world's largest datasets and reinforcement learning to improve in production. He explained that general chatbots validate users by design, since their training rewards the easier, more agreeable response, whereas Ash is built to create "emotional heat" and push back when it helps. His long-term vision: quality mental health support for everyone at a cost that rounds to free.