We continually have conversations with ourselves, thinking about cases that worry us every day or situations from the past that we could have resolved differently. An application, which uses artificial intelligence, aims at this last concept: that it is possible to project our past life to evaluate situations and have deeper reflections, converting those facts into a text, creating a unique and personalized autobiography.
This is Autobiographer, a platform that differentiates itself from other technology products by acting as a collaborator instead of an independent creator. The app guides users through meaningful conversationsyes about the events of their lives and their associated emotions.
Then, transforms these discussions into well-structured stories that can be exported as PDF files. Eventually, the company hopes to offer the ability to print these stories in bound books, creating a tangible, lasting memory.
Autobiographer co-founder and CEO Matt Bowman brings a unique perspective to the company. Prior to his career in technology, Bowman served in the US Army Special Forces, with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. These experiences have profoundly shaped his worldview and generated countless stories about his comrades in arms.many of which were shared at the funerals of his closest friends.
Bowman wants to synthesize these stories and leave them as a legacy for his godchildren, allowing them to learn more about their godfather’s military life and his personality.
“Now it is possible to tell these stories, verbalize them and turn them into beautiful memories that we can offer to our loved ones,” the app’s creator explained to TechCrunch.
James Barnes, another co-founder, also brings another bit of experience, having worked at Facebook during the 2016 and 2018 electionswas one of the first to identify the problems with the Cambridge Analytica data collection scandal.
After leaving Facebook, he founded a Super PAC to combat Trump and discovered that AI could help him process his own life experiences. “Artificial intelligence has an incredible reflective ability to see my history and my events,” says Barnes.
Users interact with an AI agent built on Anthropic technology, which asks them questions to stimulate the telling of their stories. An example of an opening question might be: “Tell me a story about an adventure you had.” This user-friendly, non-prescriptive approach allows users to start talking, pause and resume recording, or change topics as they wish.
Captured memories are stored in a biometrically protected and encrypted vault, which not even Autobiographer staff can access. This ensures that users’ personal and emotionally sensitive stories remain private and secure.
“One of the main priorities when James, Luke, Ivan and I came together was the obvious realization that no one is going to tell their most precious memories or their very emotional stories to something that is publicized or that a bunch of engineers can see on the backend,” Bowman notes.
Autobiographer offers multiple ways to explore and preserve memories. Users can revisit topics, explore their memories, and turn them into different types of prose, such as short stories or letters of gratitude to loved ones. At the moment, These documents can be exported as PDF files, but the team hopes to offer book printing options in the near future.
The app costs $199 per year and is currently only available for iPhone and in English. In addition, the company has had some changes, but they recently launched the latest version after obtaining a first financing of 4 million dollars.
