Can an AI help you tell your story? That’s the idea behind a startup called Autobiographythat leverages AI technology to engage users in meaningful conversations about events in their lives and how they felt about them, then turns them into prose, essentially creating your own autobiography.
The startup operates in a field that is fraught with debate – many people have rebelled against the idea that artificial intelligence could replace art, writing and other creative endeavors. But in Autobiographer’s case, AI guides the user to tell their own story, in their own words, then organizes it into output that can be exported as a PDF and perhaps, one day, linked and printed as well. In other words, he functions more as a collaborator than as a sole creator.
The app may not replace professionally handwritten stories, but it could serve as a way to document family history, a friendship, or create a keepsake for your children.
Autobiographer co-founder and CEO Matt Bowman he sees the app as a way to leave behind a narrative about his godparents. Before working at Facebook in the Bay Area, Bowman previously served in the Army Special Forces, where he deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, he has experienced losses that have shaped his worldview.
“I have tons of great stories about my friends in the military – so many funny facts, so many unique and amazing facts – many of which we heard at funerals for some of my best friends. Now it’s my job to figure out how to put them together and give them to my godmothers,” Bowman says. He wants them to be able to learn more about their dad, his life in the military and what he was like as a person.
“Technology has now reached a point where it is possible to do this,” explains Bowman. “We can actually tell these stories, speak them orally, and then turn them into beautiful keepsakes that we can give to those around us.”
Bowman worked with James Barnes, who had also worked at Facebook during the 2016 and 2018 elections, where he was notably one of the first people to notice the issues with the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal – an event that led to the involvement of him in many subsequent depositions and subpoenas. He later left Facebook to start a Super PAC to fight Trump. As he played with OpenAI’s GPT-3, he found that AI could help him process the things he had experienced in his life, including these milestones.
“The AI had this incredible reflexive ability to see myself, my story, and my events,” says Barnes.
Although Barnes and Bowman didn’t overlap at Facebook, they met last year in San Francisco as Barnes was looking for someone with military experience to help the team (which also includes co-founders Luke Schoenfelder and Ivan Almaral) experiment with this idea using AI for storytelling. The two bonded over their shared goals and other experiences, including their interest in psychedelic medicine.
“Exploring consciousness was a key connection point for us,” Barnes explains. “As we work on these really tangible things, we’re also able to think about the ability of our platform to allow people to go inward and do more abstract, personal work,” he says.
To use the app, you engage in conversations with an AI agent, powered by Anthropic technology, that prompts you to tell a story. For example, the initial prompt might ask you to tell a story about an adventure you had, reminding you that there is no right or wrong answer. You can start speaking, pause and continue recording or move on to another question if you prefer.
The memories are stored in a vault, a biometrically protected, encrypted space that even the Autobiographer’s staff cannot access.
“One of the most important values as James, Luke, Ivan and I, was the obvious understanding that no one is going to tell their favorite memories or very sensitive emotional stories in something advertised — or that a bunch of engineers he can see in the back,” says Bowman.
The app lets you revisit topics, explore your memories, and then turn them into different types of prose — like a short story or a thank you for a loved one. Currently, these are exported as PDFs, but the team would like to offer a hard copy at some point.
The autobiography costs $199 a year — cheaper than a ghostwriter, sure, but also expensive enough to put some off.
The company has now also partnered with journalist Katie Couric, who will be a promotional partner for the startup. However, her role is yet to be determined.
The company behind Autobiographer was founded three and a half years ago, but has taken quite a few twists and turns. The latest version of the app, released today, was launched a year ago.
Autobiographer is backed by $4 million in pre-seed funding from various companies.
