AI Foundation, an AI research lab that gave us virtual Deepak Chopra, has launched AI.XYZ, a platform for people to create their own AI assistants.

Let’s hope it’s a tangible example of how we’re going to get along fine with AI, rather than be terminated by them. The idea is that we should all feel better if AI assistants offload some of our daily tasks.

The foundation calls it the world’s first AI life management platform, designed to promote a healthier work-life balance for busy people, said Lars Buttler, chairman of AI Foundation, a dual commercial and nonprofit entity.

The platform enables users to design their own AI assistants that can safely support them in both personal and professional settings. Each AI is unique to its creator and can assist with tasks such as note-taking, email writing, brainstorming, and offering personalized advice and perspectives.

Unlike generic AI assistants from companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, or ChatGPT, each AI assistant designed on AI.XYZ belongs exclusively to its creator, knows the person’s values and goals, and provides more personalized help. The company sees a significant opportunity for workplaces and enterprises to provide each of their employees with their own AIs.

About 83% of workers suffer from work-related stress and seven out of every 10 workers aren’t engaged and working to their full potential, according to Zippia. With AI.XYZ, everyone can have their own personal proofreader, content creator, and brainstormer, saving hours of time and improving work quality.

Rob Meadows, CEO of AI Foundation, said, “Our goal is to give everyone back more time and energy to focus on the things they love – the things that make us human.” He added that AI.XYZ would not replace people but would extend everyone with their own AI that proactively works day and night to help them.

How it works

AI.XYZ is available in public beta and can be accessed on the web with an invitation code. Creators can interact with their AIs through text, voice, and video. A free subscription to AI.XYZ allows users to get started creating their own AI, while a premium subscription for $20 per month allows additional capabilities and customization options.

The AI Foundation has collaborated with top research institutions like the Technical University of Munich to create “sustainable AI” for everyone. The foundation also pioneered the concept of allowing individuals to create their own AI in 2019 through collaborations with early adopters such as billionaire Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra, among others. It spun out run of its research projects, Reality Defender, which has become a deep fake detection platform trusted by governments.

AI.XYZ said it protects user data and privacy while offering personalized benefits to its creators. Each AI is trained on its purpose, tasks to assist with, desired personality traits, preferred expressions, and ideal behaviors.

Creators can expand their AI’s knowledge through document sharing, linking to websites like LinkedIn and noting personal memories for future reference. Creators can also decide what their AI will look and sound like by either cloning their own face and voice or choosing options from the AI.XYZ library.

Origins

AI Foundation was started in 2017. Investors include Twitter cofounder Biz Stone, Founders Fund, OVO, Endeavor, The Brandtech Group, Alpha Edison and Correlation Ventures.

The foundation started as a nonprofit and remains both a nonprofit and a commercial entity today. If it finds commercial opportunities in its research, it can spin them out as startups.

“Years ago, before AI was cool, we innovated in AI,” said Lars Buttler, chairman of AI Foundation, in an interview with GamesBeat.

He noted that his prior company, online game publisher Trion Worlds, created cloud-based massively multiplayer online game worlds that had deeper AI characters. That company didn’t survive, but it helped the AI Foundation team think more about creating smart AI.

“The idea of creating very smart AI for (non-player characters) NPCs — your sidekicks or even a version of you — never really left me,” Buttler said. “I teamed up a few years ago with Rob and we decided to just go for that. It was a time when there was no ChatGPT. AI was not really cool yet. Nowadays, Marc Andreessen, Bill Gates — everybody talks about how personal AI is going to be the big thing. Everybody will have their own personal AI. We decide