Amidst challenges faced by Humane, two of its prominent executives, Brooke Hartley Moy and Ken Kocienda, have departed to establish their own AI fact-checking startup, Infactory. This move mirrors Humane’s origin, where founders Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri left Apple to start their venture.
Hartley Moy, former Strategic Partnerships Lead at Humane, and Kocienda, former Head of Product Engineering, are steering clear of hardware complexities with Infactory. The startup aims to create a fact-checking search engine leveraging AI. Unlike Humane’s secretive pre-launch phase, Infactory founders are openly discussing their plans.
Infactory’s approach to AI is discerning, utilizing it primarily for a natural language interface that simplifies user queries. The platform will not employ AI in generating search results. Instead, it will pull information directly from trusted sources with proper citations, avoiding the inaccuracies and hallucinations seen in current AI services.
Target Audience and Pricing Model
Infactory’s subscription-based service targets enterprise customers such as newsrooms and research facilities. The initial focus will be on data-driven inquiries rather than subjective topics like politics. For example, the platform could help financial publications compare annual financials of different companies or tech enthusiasts compare sales figures of Apple and Samsung devices over the past five years.
The startup emphasizes selective partnerships with data vendors to ensure high accuracy in the information provided. According to Hartley Moy, focusing on computationally reliable data partners is crucial for maintaining factual accuracy.
Infactory has secured a pre-seed round but has not disclosed the amount or investors. The founders aim to raise seed funding over the next six to eighteen months. Despite their departure from Humane amid its struggles with the AI Pin product, Hartley Moy and Kocienda deny that these issues directly influenced their decision to leave.
Challenges and Industry Impact
Kocienda acknowledges the inherent challenges in hardware and startup ventures, expressing respect for founders willing to take such risks. He believes that innovation driven by startups is vital, rather than relying solely on major conglomerates.
Infactory plans to launch its service within a few months, aiming to offer a reliable and AI-enhanced fact-checking tool for enterprise users.
Infactory, founded by former Humane executives, is set to revolutionize fact-checking with a judicious use of AI, focusing on accuracy and reliability. With an emphasis on trusted data sources and enterprise clients, Infactory aims to address current challenges in AI-driven information retrieval, promising a significant impact in the field of data verification and accuracy.
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