Replika’s founder built the AI assistant she pitched at Disrupt 12 years ago

What happened

Twelve years after she showed an early chatbot called IO at TechCrunch Disrupt, Kuyda has launched Wabi for everyone. Wabi works like a messaging app. You can open separate threads for different goals, such as health or family. Inside each thread, the AI can build small apps for you.

A quick history

IO was the first product of Kuyda's startup, Luka. It was a helper that could book restaurants and trips. Luka later became Replika, a popular AI chatbot companion. Kuyda left Replika last year and started Wabi. At first, Wabi was described as a social app where people could make and share mini apps using prompts.

Key facts

• IO was shown 12 years ago at TechCrunch Disrupt.
• Wabi raised a $20 million pre-seed round when it first launched last year.
• Wabi's new version lets the AI decide which apps to build, based on your email.
• Examples of apps include a weight-loss tracker, a list of nearby children's events, and a daily relationship question.

Why it matters

Many new AI helpers, such as Muse and Instinct, are coming out to manage email and find deals. Kuyda says Wabi is different. It uses many threads instead of one long chat, and it lets people share those threads like group chats. She says long chats can get worse over time, and that no one has yet made a good group version of AI assistants.

What to watch

• Whether people actually use the shared group threads with friends and family.
• How well Wabi's AI builds useful apps without help from users.
• How Wabi competes with Muse and Instinct.
• Whether the multi-thread design avoids the errors that long AI chats can have.