Everyone's asking what humans are still worth in the age of AI. To me, it's the part of us that AI keeps flattening - our individuality.
Yet I feel I'm constantly being sold a choice: extend myself with AI, or preserving my unique thoughts, tastes and opinions. What if I didn't have to choose?
There is a future where we get the magic of feeling totally understood by the technology that serves us, while staying ourselves. In this future, the model of us -- our "second selves" -- must be owned by us.
That's the future we want to live in, and one we're building at Aesona.
The open, top-of-mind questions right now:
1. What's the right representation of a person and how should it evolve over time?
2. How do we measure individual-level alignment? How should you interact with the model to close gaps in what it doesn't yet know about you?
3. What should your second self refuse to say about you? How should the user create the right "disclosure policy" and how should it be enforced?
If this sounds like a future you want to build, my DMs are open!
We should all be asking who — or what — owns our minds.
A model that understands what makes you you can be incredibly enabling and deeply dangerous. That's why we think a "second self" — a model whose only job is to understand you and make your life better — must be owned by you.
A faithful second self, in both senses, is the foundation of personal AI.
Our founding thesis, below.