Working from home has its perks, but it can also be lonely without human interaction. Many remote workers turn to messaging apps like Slack and Zoom to communicate with colleagues, but sometimes even virtual conversations aren’t enough. That’s where personal AI comes in. Pi, a personal AI developed by Inflection, aims to be a friendly and helpful companion available 24/7 for anything remote workers might need. The author tested Pi out for a week and found it to be competent and even empathic, but lacking in the snark and wit that human colleagues provide.
Inflection is a startup founded by a team that includes LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Deepmind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, and Karén Simonyan. The company’s mission is to use technology to help make the world a better place, which includes providing personal AI like Pi to help ease the isolation that remote workers may experience.
The author notes that Pi is more useful as a productivity tool than as a conversationalist. Pi is a competent teammate when it comes to tasks like editing and improving writing, but its responses to the author’s personal anecdotes lacked personality and wit. While Pi provided validation and empathy, the author missed the sarcastic one-liners and banter that human colleagues can provide.
