That is an as-told-to dialog with Molly Cantillon, a Stanford dropout and founding father of NOX, a customized AI assistant.
In the identical manner individuals cradled iPhones of their palms for the primary time 17 years in the past, this technology will always remember the primary time they used ChatGPT — it felt like true magic.
It shattered the Silicon Valley tech barrier by bringing collectively individuals throughout cultures, occupations, and revenue ranges with renewed optimism in regards to the future. You may’t go right into a espresso store with out seeing it mild up somebody’s display screen.
I noticed ChatGPT as a prologue to one thing extra profound: A classy private assistant who understood me higher than I understood myself.
Individuals crave having somebody they will seek the advice of earlier than making massive choices, somebody who replies on demand, coaches them from afar, and proactively completes duties by contemplating essential, forgotten particulars. It is the type of companion Hollywood and sci-fi have all the time fantasized about however hadn’t been attainable earlier than the generative AI revolution.
NOX, the private AI assistant I constructed, was created to fill that void.
I am constructing NOX to assist individuals like me keep sane
I initially constructed NOX as a {hardware} answer in June 2023. I envisioned it as a wrist-worn recording gadget that might act as a second mind by capturing and recalling each element of my each day interactions. It might retailer all my memorable conversations, motion objects, and even the small particulars I had seen a couple of good friend.
After that summer time, I returned to Stanford with a field of jailbroken watches, distributed them to my associates, and waited for his or her suggestions.
I might get texts all through the day that their watch was overheating or had simply died. As I troubleshot, I noticed that the product’s true worth wasn’t simply in gathering knowledge about its environment, however its capacity to execute duties proactively on behalf of the person.
With the assistance of OpenAI’s fashions and instruments, I pivoted NOX right into a pure software program answer that does precisely that. It integrates each stream of data and stimuli an individual encounters, interprets them, resurfaces a very powerful particulars, and, most significantly, takes motion.
So when you want an Uber to your subsequent appointment NOX will ebook a visit. Whenever you get up within the morning, it’s going to offer you a rundown of the conferences you’ve gotten deliberate for the day. You may ask NOX to push one again when you have a battle. It will additionally name individuals in your behalf, ebook appointments, textual content your pals with updates in your life, and set targets and provide help to observe them. The extra recollections and connections NOX accumulates about somebody, the extra it may refine its understanding of them and supply customized insights.
We’ve over 500 customers on the platform, together with star athletes like skilled Tennis participant Reilly Opelka, and a ready record of over 10,000.
It is us in opposition to the Goliaths.
I left Stanford in December to construct full-time. I raised cash per week after and have since landed checks from distinguished angel traders and OpenAI’s startup fund. I additionally assembled probably the most sensible hackathoners worldwide by stalking websites like Github, ProductHunt, and Devpost (shoutout to our founding engineer, Aayush Pokharel). I satisfied them to stay with me on air mattresses in Palo Alto.
My life has been unstable all through the method as I juggle commitments, tons of of emails, and fixed conferences. In some sense, I am constructing NOX to assist individuals like me keep sane. It displays my makes an attempt to stability my obsessive drive with real happiness — hacking till 3 a.m. and getting up for my 4-mile run at 8 a.m.
Some may say we’re a gaggle of faculty dropout nobodies gunning after a crown jewel: A personalised AI assistant. It is us in opposition to the Goliaths. How might we ever disrupt an business and outpace main companies?
However generative AI has made it straightforward to create one thing useful quick. The foundations are being rewritten at a breakneck tempo, so the benefit has shifted towards the newcomers. After years of dreaming about constructing one thing massive, the taking part in subject feels stage for the primary time.
We’re not making grand guarantees in regards to the future. We’re simply centered on constructing one thing insanely cool and embracing imperfections.
You may enroll at heynox.com.
