This is a Stanford University dropout KnoxA personalized AI assistant.
Just like when people first got their hands on an iPhone 17 years ago, this generation will never forget the first time they used ChatGPT. It was magical.
With a new optimism for the future, it’s bringing people together across cultures, professions and income levels, breaking down Silicon Valley tech barriers. Walk into any coffee shop and you’re sure to see it on someone’s screen.
I saw ChatGPT as a prelude to something much deeper: a sophisticated personal assistant that understands me better than I understand myself.
People crave someone they can consult with before making big decisions, someone who will respond when requested, guide them from afar, and proactively complete tasks while taking into account important details they may have forgotten. This is the kind of companion that Hollywood and science fiction have always dreamed of, but was not possible before the generative AI revolution.
NOX, the personal AI assistant I built, was created to fill that void.
I create NOX to help people like me stay sane.
I first built NOX as a hardware solution in June 2023. I envisioned a wrist-worn recording device that would act as a second brain for me, recording and recalling every detail of my daily interactions — saving memorable conversations, action items, and even little details I noticed about my friends.
After that summer, I returned to Stanford with a box of jailbroken watches, distributed them to friends, and waited for their feedback.
Throughout the day, I received text messages about my watch overheating, malfunctioning, etc. As I continued to troubleshoot, I realized the true value of this product wasn’t just in gathering data about my surroundings, but in its ability to proactively perform tasks on the user’s behalf.
With the help of OpenAI’s models and tools, I transformed NOX into a pure software solution that does just that: it synthesizes every stream of information and stimuli a person encounters, interprets it, resurfaces the most important details, and, most importantly, takes action.
For example, if you need an Uber for your next appointment, NOX will arrange it for you. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll see an overview of your meetings scheduled for the day. If there are conflicts, you can ask NOX to postpone. NOX will also make calls on your behalf, book events, text friends updates on your life, and help you set and track goals. The more memories and connections NOX accumulates about someone, the better it understands them and the more personalized insights it can provide you.
Our platform has over 500 users, including star athletes like professional tennis player Riley Opelka, and over 10,000 people on our waiting list.
It’s us versus Goliath.
I left Stanford in December to work on it full time. We raised funding a week later, and have since received checks from prominent angel investors and the OpenAI startup fund. I also stalked sites like Github, ProductHunt, and Devpost to recruit the best hackathon attendees from around the world (thanks to our founding engineer, Aayush Pokharel). I convinced them to come and live with me on an air mattress in Palo Alto.
My life has been in turmoil throughout this process, with commitments, hundreds of emails, and constant meetings. In a way, I’m creating NOX to help people like me stay sane. It reflects my attempt to balance my obsessive drives with true happiness: hacking until 3am, then waking up at 8am for a 4-mile run.
Some might say we’re just a bunch of anonymous college dropouts chasing the holy grail of personalized AI assistants. We’re up against Goliath: How do we disrupt an industry and overtake the big players?
But generative AI is making it faster and easier to create something valuable. The rules are being rewritten at a ferocious pace in favor of new entrants. After years of dreaming about building something big, it feels like the playing field is level for the first time.
We’re not making any big promises about the future, we’re just focused on making really cool stuff and embracing imperfection.
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