Today we launched YouWrite — an AI writing assistant built into you.com.
For me, this is a special moment that ties my past research to the https://t.co/iDkPtEe5TU vision.
YouWrite example below👇with thoughts on search, research, writing, and meaning. 🧵
For me, this is a special moment that ties my past research to the https://t.co/iDkPtEe5TU vision.
YouWrite example below👇with thoughts on search, research, writing, and meaning. 🧵
You can access YouWrite directly👉 you.com/write or by searching for a “blank page” problem (i.e. “how to write an essay” or “how to write a blog”) on you.com. Here was my first attempt at using YouWrite this morning for this very thread:
I set my use case to “Essay”, my audience to “Writers”, my tone to “Friendly”, and I told YouWrite that my message should be about “Writing as a craft, honing creative energy, and articulating thought.”
The next few tweets are what YouWrite gave me, broken up so that they’d fit into tweets and interwoven with my own thoughts on each. I always feel it important to review what an AI generates from my own input, and typically I learn something while doing so as well.
“There's something about the craft of writing that is so alluring, so captivating. It's a way to hone in your creative energy and articulate your thoughts in a way that can be both healing and inspiring.” YouWrite 1/4
True. I didn’t write this. I don’t feel like I wrote this. But I agree. It is true for me too, and that is one of the most fascinating parts about these algorithms. They can reveal so much about shared human experience embedded inside language. It leaves me feeling connected.
“For me, writing has always been a form of self-expression and a tool for exploring my innermost thoughts and feelings. It's also been a way to connect with others, share stories, and create community.” YouWrite 2/4
Also true. Not how I would say it, surely the style and tone of voice are not my own, but I recognize that the underlying sentiment is shared.
“I think what I love most about writing is the process of exploration it involves — discovering new things about yourself as you write, uncovering hidden truths, and expanding your understanding of the world around you.” YouWrite 3/4
I don’t know about the first part, but from “discovering” on I do love that aspect of writing, even if I don’t care as much about “hidden truths” as I do expanding my understanding of self and its relation to the world.
“It's also rewarding to see how my thinking evolves over time as I continue to write consistently. And finally, there's nothing quite like reading something you've written aloud and hearing how it resonates with others.” YouWrite 4/4
My revision: there’s nothing quite like reading something rooted in your own thoughts, expanded upon by a model that has learned from so many other people, and hearing how we all resonate with each other.
Before you.com, we worked on these kinds of AI @SFResearch: controllable language models, AI Storytelling at #SXSW, and even applying them to protein design. The outputs of that research generated laughter, inspiration, and, at times, concern.
We worked with ethicists to anticipate and mitigate risks, authors to explore the role of algorithms in the creative process, and biologists to understand the language of life. In all cases, I found these systems increasingly a focal point for research as important search tools.
These are fascinating systems that help expand our search toolset. We know we can search to find a website, for products to buy, for videos to watch. But we can also search for how to express ourselves, for truths about the world, how life works, for meaning.
We’re going to keep building things like YouWrite into you.com to help people keep searching for whatever they are looking for in ways that they might not have imagined, yielding results that will at times be surprising, even challenging one’s beliefs.
Keep searching. Keep learning. Follow me @BMarcusMcCann for more like this, @YouSearchEngine for the future of search, and use that “Shareable link” button to share your YouWrite examples with us! We'll be answering questions on producthunt.com/posts/youwrite too!
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