Dan Siroker, founder of Rewind AI, discusses recording everything you do, see and read, living life on a “hot mic”, bringing Black Mirror to life, AI as cognitive butler, growing up in Palo Alto, working on the Obama campaign, making mistakes at other companies, Sam Altman, how he uses Rewind, and dealing with the hallucination problem.
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Quick takeaways
Rewind AI aims to provide users with personalized AI powered by their past experiences to enhance honesty and communication in personal relationships.
Dan Siroker emphasizes the importance of following intuition and combining empirical data with personal experience to optimize decision-making processes.
While OpenAI is a significant player in the AI revolution, Rewind AI believes its unique data collection capabilities and privacy-focused approach give them a stronger long-term position.
Deep dives
Rewind AI: Giving Humans Superpowers
Rewind AI is a startup that aims to give humans superpowers through a personalized AI powered by everything you've seen, said, or heard. By capturing screens, storing them locally, and using large language models for searchability, Rewind AI allows users to turn past experiences into action and alleviate their to-do lists. The technology combines innovative hardware like the pendant, a privacy-first Bluetooth microphone, with Apple's M1 chip architecture to enable local storage and processing. While some may raise concerns about privacy and the dystopian aspects of perfect memory, Rewind AI believes that its approach will enhance honesty and communication in personal relationships.
Optimizely's Data-Driven Approach and Lessons Learned
Dan Siroker, the founder of Rewind AI, previously founded Optimizely. The lessons he learned from optimizing decision-making processes at Optimizely heavily influence his approach at Rewind AI. Siroker emphasizes the importance of following his intuition rather than abdicating critical decision-making to others. Through data-driven experimentation, A/B testing, and measuring the impact of different choices, Optimizely achieved great success in optimizing conversions and user engagement. While mistakes were made when going against his gut instincts, Siroker now trusts his intuition and seeks a balance between empirical data and personal experience.
OpenAI's Transformational Potential and Competitive Landscape
OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, is at the forefront of the AI revolution and is seen as a significant player in shaping the future of technology. However, the competitive landscape in the AI space is constantly evolving, and other companies can pose challenges to OpenAI's position. While OpenAI has demonstrated the magic of large language models and has a first-mover advantage, other organizations are quickly growing and competing in the market. Despite this, Rewind AI believes that its unique data collection capabilities and privacy-focused approach provide them with a stronger long-term position compared to OpenAI.
AI's role in productivity and problem-solving
AI, when used as a tool alongside humans, can enhance productivity and problem-solving abilities. Rather than being seen as a threat, AI is viewed positively as a means to augment human capabilities. The ability to have perfect memory and reasoning allows individuals to recall necessary information, connect dots, synthesize data, and be more present. With AI, tasks such as note-taking and email drafting can be automated, freeing up time for more meaningful work. AI can be particularly valuable in dispute resolution, contract management, and knowledge worker tasks.
Rewind's impact and the promise of personalized AI
Rewind, an AI-augmented memory tool, offers perfect recall and reasoning, creating a personalized AI experience. The value of Rewind lies in transforming the past into actions that benefit the user. By having an AI assistant that handles mundane tasks, such as recording meetings and summarizing them, or drafting emails based on past interactions, individuals can focus on higher-leverage activities. The goal is not complete automation but rather to streamline tasks and enable individuals to allocate their time more efficiently. Rewind's ability to provide context and citations mitigates the risk of hallucination, making it a valuable tool for busy professionals seeking increased productivity.
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dan Siroker, founder of Rewind AI, to talk about why he started the company (4:40), recording everything you do, see and read (7:10), living life on a “hot mic" (10:20), the pendant (12:45), bringing Black Mirror to life (17:00), AI as cognitive butler (23:45), growing up surrounded by tech in Palo Alto (28:00), working on the Obama campaign (29:00), making mistakes at other companies (34:00), his view of Sam Altman (37:35), how he uses Rewind (43:00), and dealing with the hallucination problem (44:30).