AI Hustle: News on Open AI, ChatGPT, Midjourney, NVIDIA, Anthropic, Open Source LLMs: Why Hungryroot Founder Created AI Side Projects – Unveiling a $1B Journey

Welcome to the OpenAI podcast, the podcast that opens up the world of AI in a quick and

concise manner.

Tune in daily to hear the latest news and breakthroughs in the rapidly evolving world

of artificial intelligence.

If you've been following the podcast for a while, you'll know that over the last six

months I've been working on a stealth AI startup.

Of the hundreds of projects I've covered, this is the one that I believe has the greatest

potential, so today I'm excited to announce AIBOX.

AIBOX is a no-code AI app building platform paired with the App Store for AI that lets

you monetize your AI tools.

The platform lets you build apps by linking together AI models like chatGPT, mid-journey,

and 11Labs.

Eventually, we'll integrate with software like Gmail, Trello, and Salesforce so you

can use AI to automate every function in your organization.

To get notified when we launch and be one of the first to build on the platform, you

can join the wait list at AIBOX.AI, the link is in the show notes.

We are currently raising a seed round of funding.

If you're an investor that is focused on disruptive tech, I'd love to tell you more

about the platform.

You can reach out to me at jaden at AIBOX.AI, I'll leave that email in the show notes.

So Ben McKean is the driving force behind the healthy grocery delivery service, which

as Hungry wrote, gave you a little brief on the intro.

And he is no stranger to the power of AI in business.

I think with his recent jump into his new venture, every McKean intends to essentially

harness AI in an entirely new realm, which is to, quote unquote, foster profound personal

relationships and uncover shared experiences.

So at its heart, every is kind of a unique iOS application that taps into AI's potential

to craft, quote unquote, thought provoking games.

So it's kind of funny, but essentially, and it's, but it's a cool concept and it's essentially

geared towards self-expiration.

One game is called Inner Odyssey.

And essentially it's a, it's immersed as a user in a kind of visual narrative, prompting

them to select an image or a place they want to discover.

So it's like, of these two, like I saw like a picture and it was like, one of them looked

like a, some street in Rome and some was like another place and it's like, of these two

pictures, which of these places would you want to like discover more?

And so as a user kind of navigates through these choices, this or that, um, and like

subsequent queries, they essentially get insights into how often, like, or how other

people have answered the same questions and it gives them light on, you know, shared perspectives

and experiences that other people have, which is kind of interesting, right?

Like they ask you, would you rather this or that to a whole bunch of things and they're

like, oh, well, 20% of people are like, think the same way as you and this percent don't.

And here's a bunch of people that like relate to you or are like similar.

So I think the inspiration behind every kind of stems from this, uh, realization during

the pandemic and like isolation that came from it, of quote, the feeling of disconnect

was palpable, even among close acquaintances, a staggering 58% of Americans sense that nobody

truly understands them, end quote.

So that was their CEO, of course, McKean, who's kind of pointing this out, referencing

this kind of alarming societal detachment statistic.

But I think, you know, every is not just about individual introspection, McKean kind

of envisions potential applications within the corporate sphere, facilitating connections

among like colleagues.

Of course, it's going to be a little bit more toned down when it comes to like the personal

inquiries and stuff.

I think in what might come as a surprise to a lot of people, every's intricate games

are kind of the offspring of advanced AI.

Of course, this is courtesy of things like open AI and mid journey that are kind of baked

into this.

So these AI driven narratives are sparked by specific themes or individuals.

What's cool is that this isn't just like an auto-generated quiz, right?

This isn't just like a complex quiz app, which is like, do you want this picture, that picture,

this like answer, that answer, like as you go throughout it, everything's customized

to you personally and it's AI that's generating it, meaning it's really completely unique.

And so what you're discovering on this app is going to be different than other people,

which is kind of a cool aspect.

Sometimes when I see these kind of apps, though, I like ask myself, could this just be a complex

this or that quiz?

Does it have to be generative AI to do this?

And I know that there's some like cool aspects to it, but I don't know, I ask myself that

question because obviously it costs more money to have generative AI generating this every

single time.

And so it's like, you just have to ask yourself, like, is it necessary to do this?

But in any case, I digress.

I think one of the collaborations is with Hector Guadalupe.

He's the founder of a second you foundation and they're utilizing Guadalupe's input.

So the AI crafts games centered around skills crucial for reigniting reintegration, host

incarceration, right?

So after people come out of prison, some of the skills they need, and this game is slated

for an October 25th release.

So it's kind of like a game if you get out of prison to help you find your way in life.

It's kind of an interesting concept, right?

I think, well, the AI is predominantly autonomous.

It generated content that's, you know, completely created by AI, but human intervention remains

a bit of a cornerstone, they said.

So given the AI's training duration of about six months, mid journey then completes these

AI generative narratives with a bunch of visuals.

And I think in keeping with its kind of moniker, every has an ambitious goal of launching a

new game daily, which I mean, if it's all generated by AI, that's I don't think that's

too like out of out of the ordinary, with each weekday symbolizing distinct themes.

So while Mondays might go into like career aspirations, Sunday could give more philosophical

kind of things.

After each gameplay users receive curated inspirational content tailored to their responses.

They have a maps feature, which kind of further extends the personalization journey, charting

out users traits derived from in game scores, which is kind of an interesting concept again.

And individual enlightenment, every is kind of broader mission is fostering genuine connections.

So through shared gameplay experiences, users can kind of like discover shared interests

or values.

And you know, the idea is that this is going to create deeper conversations and relationships.

The every app is the kind of the collaborative brainchild of Ben McCurn, right, the CEO,

but also Sarah McCurn and Maya Valliath.

What's interesting is all of the development for this was actually executed by external

agency, and it has been in beta since March.

So every has now made its official debut on the app store, it's available for free in,

I think it doesn't have any in-app purchases, it's completely free.

While it's currently operating as a nonprofit side project, McKean hasn't ruled out the prospects

of expanding every potentially, you know, looking for investors and, you know, seeing

what interest this thing has in the future.

So I think what's the most interesting part of this whole story to me really is the fact

that here we have the founder of an incredibly successful company, right?

This thing's, it's doing like over $200 million in revenue every year, it's close to a billion

dollar valuation.

And he's still, when AI comes around, gets so excited that he's like, dude coming up

with AI side projects that are completely unrelated to his company, that his investors

and his current company don't have any equity in.

It's kind of funny because I definitely, I definitely see this with a lot of founders,

you know, they'll be working on something and then they get this shiny object syndrome,

they see this new kind of, this new tool or idea and they kind of go and focus on that.

So to be honest, for me, this is a big part of the current startup I'm working on.

AI box was, I was definitely having some sort of AI shiny object syndrome.

I was seeing, I was thinking of all these different use cases, all these different tools

for AI and it got to the point for myself where I was like, there's no way I can build

this 20, 30, 40 different AI tools that I'm, you know, I'm thinking of right now.

I'm like, I really just need to build a platform where you can create all of these different

tools on the platform.

And I realized, you know, there's no way I could create all of the AI use cases that

existed this need to be a platform where I allow you guys, other people to create these

AI tools.

And so that's kind of where I got started building out AI box and what I've been working

on for the last year.

So it's kind of funny because it's definitely relatable just when you get these ideas that

are, you know, in your head of these really cool use cases, you might be like deep within

another company, but you really want to get them out.

And so for me, that's what AI box is all about.

There's so many of you that I know work at big AI startups or big software companies

or other places or just your own companies, small businesses, all sorts of places, you

have these great AI ideas, they might not even be like exactly what your current business

is.

So really building a space for you and also myself, right?

I'm building this as, as you know, I am the user, a place to build AI tools while you might

be pursuing your other endeavors is kind of really interesting.

And we're obviously seeing this from a big, huge company like Hungry Root, seeing this

exact same thing play out.

So Hungry Root, very interesting.

I'll be curious to see how every plays out, what kind of traction they receive, but definitely

an interesting story and a lot of relatable aspects.

If you are looking for an innovative and creative community of people using chat GPT, you need

to join our chat GPT creators community.

I'll drop a link in the description to this podcast.

We'd love to see you there where we share tips and tricks of what is working in chat

GPT.

It's a lot easier than a podcast as you can see screenshots, you can share and comment

on things that are currently working.

So if this sounds interesting to you, check out the link in the comment.

We'd love to have you in the community.

Thanks for joining me on the open AI podcast.

It would mean the world to me if you would rate this podcast wherever you listen to your

podcasts and I'll see you tomorrow.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.