As new AI tools sprout up like weeds, it’s becoming remarkably commonplace for people of all walks of life to outsource their social interactions to the whims of the computer. But for former Google exec and CEO of Yahoo Marissa Mayer, AI is doing a lot more than just making dinner reservations — instead becoming a crutch for the basic tasks of parenthood.
Mayer’s latest project is Dazzle, a startup providing personal AI assistants valued at $35 million. As the New York Times explains, the tool works by analyzing every image in your camera roll to answer questions and make suggestions meant to help you in your everyday life.
To hear the former Yahoo CEO tells it, the creepy AI assistant is meant to help women delegate monotonous chores.
“Women, this is my own bias, tend to take more photos and are more visual, and so being able to work with AI in a visual medium is fun,” Mayer told the NYT. “It essentially understands your personality, your likes, your dislikes, because it knows what you think looks good.”
Mayer should know, after all — she admits to using the tool for just about everything. As part of her interview with the NYT, the startup founder even told a story about how she tapped Dazzle for the grueling undertaking of identifying things that make her daughter special.
The task was part of an assignment from her 10-year-old daughter Marielle’s grade school teacher. It was pretty simple: come up with three bullet points summating what made Marielle special. Overwhelmed with the “range and complexity of potential answers,” as the NYT tells it, Mayer asked Dazzle.
“It came back and was like, your daughter is empathetic, creative and an animal lover,” Mayer told the paper, evidently proud of outsourcing the task of knowing basic facts about her own child.
Since founding Dazzle — which she calls “one of my babies” — Mayer says she’s automated all kinds of tasks, like planning sleepovers and organizing her children’s birthday parties.
“The play dates are better, the travel is better,” Mayer told the NYT.
While using Dazzle to plot out her 14-year-old son Macallister’s birthday party, the AI tool recommended a glow-in-the-dark theme, including glowing pool toys and phosphorescent corn hole.
“He was like, ‘Mom, I don’t want to hit the theme that hard,’” Mayer said of her son’s reaction. “I just can’t help myself.”
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