is a NYC-based AI reporter and is currently supported by the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism. She covers AI companies, policies, and products.
The creators of Oboe know what everyone’s thinking about AI. “Is AI going to make us all stupid?” the company asks in a recent ad. “Are we going to forget how to think for ourselves?”
Oboe’s founders think the answer to both of those questions is no, and their startup is meant to prove it.
The AI education platform, which launched this month, uses AI to craft “courses” about any topic that strikes a user’s fancy. It comes from the creators of Anchor, a DIY mini-podcast creation platform that was acquired by Spotify for $150 million. Nir Zicherman, Oboe’s CEO and cofounder, ended up running Spotify’s audiobooks vertical, while Mike Mignano, also an Oboe cofounder, ran Spotify’s podcast team.
Zicherman wants to “democratize access to a great learning experience” on the cheap with AI, he tells The Verge. That’s a lofty claim, especially considering how many products are branded as AI-powered learning tools already — and how rampant hallucinations continue to be across AI products.
Currently, people turn to ChatGPT, Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, and other internet platforms to learn, Zicherman argues. The process requires users to “piece it together” and go on “a very linear journey that is one-size-fits-all,” he says. Oboe, meanwhile, streamlines the information to a “single destination that you need to go to to actually learn effectively.”
Oboe’s website has a familiar chatbot feel with a textbox inviting users to type out what they want to learn. Unlike ChatGPT, however, Oboe will not converse with users in a back-and-forth. Instead, Oboe’s response to a prompt will be its signature AI-generated “course” about the topic using traditional educational formats, such as a longer written text that appears similar to an introductory chapter in a textbook or a short bulleted list of “key takeaways.”
Image: Oboe
One could generate “courses” on the origin of artificial intelligence or forms of intelligence in nature, both of which featured in Oboe’s ad.
Or, you could be like me and choose the unglamorous, opaque topic of concrete manufacturing and its environmental impacts, about which I know next to nothing.
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