GM Readers! ☀️

Welcome to the 14th issue of Evolving Internet Insights: Brainfood — a weekly deep dive into a relevant emerging tech topic.

Today we double click into companies building creator ecosystems that enable the hyper personalization thesis for gen AI.

Thanks for reading!

Liang and Dan 🙌

🧠 Brain Food

One focus topic to feed your brain.

The Promise of Hyper-Personalization 🤓

One of the promises of generative (gen) AI technologies like large language models (LLM) is that they might one day enable a world of hyper-personalization. Prior to gen AI technologies, such levels of individualized content creation were impractical due to resource and time constraints. It was impractical to custom build an application or product for just one user. However, in the age of AI every individual can get served content, apps and products that meet their unique needs.

LLM-powered applications like ChatGPT and image models like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E give us a glimpse into what is possible. For example, in education, chatbots can serve up different types of content catered to each learner and over time, those chatbots can learn what resonates and works with that learner. 

Enabling this vision requires more than just technology, it requires the development of ecosystems that seamlessly bring together users with specific needs (the demand) and creators that will build and customize solutions (the supply). 

Enabling Creator Ecosystems 🧑‍🎨

Expanding on the concept of the modern day “app store” (á la Apple and Google), we are observing a trend in AI where companies are building tools to enable non-technical users to become creators themselves. The benefits of this strategy is: (1) it catalyzes innovation by empowering a diverse array of users to experiment and build apps, and (2) it accelerates the evolution and practical implementation of AI technologies, as purpose built creations from users often reveal new opportunities and challenges, pushing the boundaries of what these technologies can achieve.

Some examples of companies pursuing the creator ecosystem strategy include:

Character.AI’s Conversational AI for Gen Z 🗣️

Character.AI, launched roughly a year ago, is an AI chatbot platform powered by the company’s own deep learning models but with personalized avatars and conversation in mind. The use case that Character.AI is tapping into has appealed largely to the Gen Z segment, with users ages 18 to 24 contributing about 60% of its website traffic.

In this ecosystem, users are able to bring “to life the science-fiction dream of open-ended conversations and collaborations with computers” by: 

• Defining their character’s visual and behavioral attributes.

• Training their characters' responses through a rating system to create their optimal conversation partner.

• Conversing with their characters in contextually personalized and realistic ways.

Character.AI previously said that its platform had attracted “100 million monthly visits in the first six months since its launch.” In March of 2023, the company raised $150M in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $1 billion valuation.

Quora's Poe, a Creator Platform for Chatbots 🐦‍⬛

Quora launched Poe, the “Platform for Open Exploration,” in December 2022 as a service that allowed users to access more than one LLM and chatbot all in one single interface. For example, a user can ask Poe a question and decide which chatbot it wants to answer. For users, this means that they don’t have to access a variety of different models themselves across different websites.

Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of Quora, stated that “we foresee a large number of models available in the near future. Different models will be optimized for different tasks, they will represent different points of view, or they will have access to different knowledge.” In a world where models proliferate, having a single user interface to access them is a strategic advantage.

Recently, Quora announced that Poe is enabling creator monetization for those building chatbots for Poe. Poe is incentivizing creators in two ways:

• Referral Fee: if a creator’s chatbot leads a user to subscribe to Poe, the company will share a percentage of the revenue with the chatbot’s creator.

• Pay-per-Use: chatbot creators can set a per-message fee within their chatbots.

This ecosystem incentivizes creators to experiment and build as many different types of chatbots as possible. For users, they can have their pick through an app store and ultimately the users decide which chatbot apps are the most useful and popular. Poe’s role is to ensure a healthy ecosystem between creators and users. 🎡

OpenAI GPTs: Democratizing AI Development 👷

OpenAI’s announcements at their first-ever Dev Day highlight a concerted effort to create a thriving ecosystem for their AI technologies. Their “GPT Store” and the ability for users to create custom GPTs signals that OpenAI doesn’t want to prescribe a single one-size-fits all app (ChatGPT) for its users. OpenAI highlighted in its announcement blog:

“GPTs are a new way for anyone to create a tailored version of ChatGPT to be more helpful in their daily life, at specific tasks, at work, or at home—and then share that creation with others… Anyone can easily build their own GPT—no coding is required. You can make them for yourself, just for your company’s internal use, or for everyone. Creating one is as easy as starting a conversation, giving it instructions and extra knowledge, and picking what it can do, like searching the web, making images or analyzing data… We believe the most incredible GPTs will come from builders in the community. Whether you’re an educator, coach, or just someone who loves to build helpful tools, you don’t need to know coding to make one and share your expertise.”

OpenAI is building a community where developers can innovate and users can discover diverse applications. OpenAI’s strategy demonstrates a commitment to not only improving the AI technology stack but also ensuring its accessibility and practical utility for a broad user base. 

So What? 🤔

The era of Web2 has provided valuable lessons on the power of enabling creators, a paradigm shift that is being embraced in the AI era. With the rise of social media and mobile platforms, everyone went from being a consumer of content to a creator of content. These platforms empowered creators with the tools needed to reach global audiences, fundamentally transforming entire industries (á la YouTube vs. traditional media companies). 

From these experiences, the key takeaway is that when creators are given the right tools and platforms, they can produce a diverse array of content and applications that cater to a wide spectrum of needs, filling niches that larger companies may overlook. The result is a vibrant, dynamic ecosystem where innovation is continuous and user-centric.

Ultimately, this evolution mirrors the fundamental principle that has driven technological progress throughout history: the power of human creativity, amplified by new tools. The difference this time is that gen AI technologies can enable personalization at scale—every users’ preferences can be catered to yet not at the cost of other users. 

You get what you want, but someone else also gets what they want. 

We might be well underway towards this vision.

🎨🤖

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DISCLAIMER: This post is provided strictly for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing written in this post should be taken as financial advice or advice of any kind. The content of this post are the opinions of the authors and not representative of other parties. Empower yourself, DYOR (do your own research).