Thane: A 45-year-old woman who had wandered away from her home in a mentally distressed condition was reunited with her family in Maharashtra's Parbhani district after two-and-a-half years by a social organisation that used AI tools to trace her hometown, officials said on Saturday.

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Julekha Mukheed Shaikh had been admitted to Sanvita Ashram in Pandur, Sindhudurg, on April 3, 2024, following an order from a Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai's Kurla, issued at the request of the Colaba police and a probation officer at the Government Women's Beggars' Home in Chembur, an official release said.

Efforts to locate her family gathered pace after Kisan Choure, trustee of Jeevan Aanand Sanstha, and his team held regular conversations with Shaikh to get clues about her background. Using digital tools such as Google Search and ChatGPT, the team identified her native place and contacted her relatives with the help of the Nirbhaya police squad in Parbhani, the release said.

Following a phone conversation with her family after two-and-a-half years of separation, her husband, Mukheed Shaikh, travelled to Sanvita Ashram on November 9 and escorted her home.

"By combining patient interaction with digital tools like Google Search and ChatGPT, we were able to trace her roots and coordinate effectively with the Nirbhaya Police Squad in Parbhani to reunite her with her grieving family," Choure said.

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