Marissa Mayer unveils Dazzle, an AI assistant that reads your photos

In short: Marissa Mayer has introduced Dazzle, a personal AI assistant that learns about you by analyzing the photos in your phone’s camera roll.

What happened

Dazzle is a new app from Marissa Mayer, the former CEO of Yahoo. According to TechCrunch, Dazzle takes an unusual approach for an AI assistant. Instead of using your email, calendar, and shopping history, it uses one main source of information, your camera roll.

The idea is simple. Your photos can show what you like and what you do, like trips you take, hobbies you have, and places you visit. It is a bit like flipping through someone’s photo album to understand their life, instead of reading their inbox.

TechCrunch reports Dazzle can do quick tasks by looking at recent photos. For example, it can pull event details from a flyer photo and help add them to your calendar. It can also look at what is in your photos and suggest next steps, like finding a repair person after it spots a broken garage door.

Dazzle also has a mode for longer-term suggestions. It can scan your whole photo library and offer ideas for vacations, family outings, or gifts. In TechCrunch’s test, it suggested travel destinations based on past trips, although it also missed some details.

Mayer said Dazzle focuses on privacy and discards personal information it flags as sensitive. The company has raised an $8 million seed round, which is early funding to help a startup build and launch its product.

Why it matters

Many people are curious about AI assistants but worry about giving an app access to private messages and email. Dazzle is betting that some users may feel more comfortable sharing photos instead, even though photo libraries can still reveal a lot.

Source: TechCrunch AI