Remember the magic of turning on an Apple II or Atari?
The thrill of programming your computer to do whatever you fancied? A trio of ex-Apple employees are on a mission to revive that magic, this time with a generative AI twist.
Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer, who sold their iOS automation app Workflow to Apple in 2017, have teamed up with Kim Beverett, a decade-long Apple veteran, to launch Software Applications Incorporated. Their goal? To bring generative AI to the desktop in a way that "pushes operating systems forward."
The team is currently prototyping with a variety of large language models, including OpenAI’s GPT and Meta’s Llama 2. Their ambition is to recreate the flexibility and user control of the early computing era, but with the sophistication of modern AI.
Weinstein uses a simple example to illustrate their vision: “Sometimes you’ve got a browser window open with a schedule on it, and you just want to say, ‘add this to my calendar,’ and somehow, there’s no way to do that… We think that language models and AI give us the ingredients to make a new kind of software that can unlock this fundamental power of computing and make everyday people able to use computers to actually solve their problems.”
The team's nostalgia for early PC days is reflected in their website, which mimics Mac OS 8. They've already secured $6.5 million in funding and plan to hire up to 10 employees in the coming year.
While some startups like Rewind are developing personalised AI systems for the desktop, none seem to have as broad a vision as Software Applications. With most consumer software companies focusing on mobile, it's refreshing to see a team concentrating on the Mac. As Weinstein points out, the average interaction on a desktop computer is measured in minutes or hours, so saving people time on the desktop is an exciting prospect.
So, get ready to dust off your desktops and prepare for an AI revolution that promises to bring back the magic of early computing, with a modern twist.
Made with TRUST_AI - see the Charter: https://www.modelprop.co.uk/trust-ai
Comments