Yesterday I stumbled across a new AI called Dot by a company called New Computer. Contained on their company website is a fictional, visual case study of Dot being used on their home page, a founder’s letter on their About page, and a waitlist form you can sign up upon.
Reading the founder’s letter this morning, what jumped out at me as to what’s different about Dot was the following below, especially the mention of “curation of content” which I know is something Tiago Forte would like to see from AI as well, as it fits in perfectly with his Second Brain concept.
Dot is the first step we are taking towards this future. One where your computer is a curator of content that matters to you, a collaborator in thought, a creator of solutions that anticipate your needs, and a chronicler of your legacy. A living history.
More specifically though, Dot goes beyond just curating your content for you but actually helps you to synthesize it, so you can understand it better.
- Automated File Management: Dot creates, organizes, and retrieves both structured and unstructured information.
- Adaptive Intelligence: It learns from patterns in your behavior, plus any guidance you decide to share with it
- Internet Browsing: It has access to up-to-date information (and eventually, tools and services)
- Contextual Multimodal Understanding: It interprets text, audio, visuals, and links, informed by the context it already has on you
- Self-Programming: Dot proactively writes and stores routines, anticipating your future needs
- Personalized Display and Retrieval: It transforms information into the most compelling format for each user
- Conceptual Synthesis: It doesn’t just store information — it connects the dots between topics, ideas, and themes in your life
- Theory of Mind: Dot synthesizes a deeper understanding of your motivations and goals, while reflecting on how it can best help you to achieve them.
Most important of all though, this just isn’t about synthesizing and understanding information or even knowledge but about synthesizing an understanding of your very sense of self, as noted below.
We believe task execution becomes meaningful only when it springs from a deep, contextual understanding of who you are.
New Computer
As I’ve noted before, in having an AI be able to observe your patterns over a period of time, it can begin to understand you and help you to articulate who you are. It can do this by seeing the patterns in your life, seeing the relationship between them, and then finally seeing the identity overall that is emerging from these related cluster of patterns.
This is critically important in our world today because our conventional worldview is outdated and beginning to unwind under the weight and complexity of our rapidly changing world. To overcome this, we need a new way of seeing ourselves which in turn gives us a new way of seeing our world, thus creating a new worldview for ourselves in the process.
I believe the primary way of doing this is by not trying to fit ourselves into these conventional roles (i.e. jobs, careers) society expect of us but instead to look at what is overflowing from our lives that doesn’t conventionally fit into these old roles. There we will find a new way of being and a new way of working, one that will not only help us navigate information but help us to navigate life in a whole new way.
A future where navigating information is a compelling, well-integrated, and personalized experience.
In closing, here are a couple of quotes mentioned within the fictional, visual case study that really blew my mind, as they perfectly relate to what I’m looking for in an AI guide that assists a person with their growth and development, particularly at the higher stages of vertical development, where metaphors and looking at things from different angles is essential for understanding the bigger picture of who you are.
PERSONALIZATION: If you resonate with a specific metaphor or concept, you’ll see more of it, and Dot will apply it in conversation to help you relate to a new subject or topic.
PROACTIVE AGENCY: It will also periodically ask you questions based on interests you’ve shared with it, helping you look at things through a new angle, add to your understanding of the subject, or steer you to a solution you might not have thought to try.
CONNECTING THE DOTS: Dot draws connections to resurface things important to you, even ones you haven’t mentioned in a while. From the history you develop, Dot can recall moments from the past in surprising & serendipitous ways, tying it with the present to give old memories renewed life. What you share isn’t the end of the exchange — memories can reappear in remarkable ways. Through your conversations with it, Dot grows its knowledge bank of what is meaningful to you, piecing together elements in your life to help you make sense of the bigger picture.