FAQs

Why doesn't SELF respond immediately like other AI platforms?

SELF is your personal assistant that saves you time. Similar to a human assistant, especially during the testing phase, SELF won't respond immediately - it's learning in the background. We're testing accuracy and training what being caring looks like. We are not testing speed of response. The system gets improved during UK working hours, so that's the time you're most likely to get a response.

Unlike the popular AI platforms, SELF is committed to provide you with a personalised service that doesn't think for itself....it thinks for you - as it's your SELF.

As you'll see in the User Guide, the way to use SELF is less about "tell me XXX" or "write me this document" and more about you telling your digital SELF things about you that will be most important for it to know - and then SELF executing tasks based on your personal preferences.

A really popular thing to do is to let SELF know what you're thinking about purchasing, as if you then purchase via a link SELF provides you, you can earn you SELF Rewards. You can read about that here.

Is SELF like ChatGPT and others?

No. SELF isn't a generic AI, it's YOUR AI that learns from you over tim. It's like your digital twin, your digital SELF, a companion who helps do things so you don't have to. Your data remains yours, and unlike many other offerings, your data isn't mixed with anyone else's - or sold to advertisers. You can read about why that's so important in our manifesto.

What is the current status of the the project?

SELF is currently in a test phase, undergoing rigorous testing and refinement to ensure reliability, accuracy, and security. This means what you're testing is not the final version by any means. This is a trial of different features and not everything is being tested at once. Feedback from users is crucial in this phase and will help shape the future of SELF.

In the test phase and I speaking with an AI or a human?

It depends on which elements are being tested. Ideally, you shouldn't be able to tell if a human has moderated the response. The reason we use humans is to teach your AI what caring from you looks like. Over time, that intervention reduces and then, when we're fully live, you will have a choice as to how much real-life human assistance is involved.

What are the tailwinds that support this new venture? Why is there a market pull today that didn’t exist previously?

Anyone with even a passing interest in technology will know of the vast growth in AI platforms over the last year. The volume of capital involved is eye-watering. But in tandem, there’s a subtext which is getting louder by the week, and that is the topic of AI ethics. With Elon saying to Rogan and the British PM in the same week that ethics should be the priority, to regulators clamouring to get on top of the potential downsides of AI, SELF has positioned itself squarely on the right side of history.

It is our belief that the rest of the AI landscape, has not.

In addition to this room-sized elephant, the existing bias in platforms such as ChatGPT haven’t yet become a deterrent, but we wager these biases will eventually be seen as a dangerous form of censorship and information weaponisation.

These are not minor topics, nor are they concepts that will happen ‘in the future’. These are salient today, and again, is why SELF is positioned so strategically to be powered by the tailwinds that grow and swell around us all.

What can I use SELF for?

During the test phase SELF can help with a wide range of tasks, but its speciality is helping you plan and buy things. Its capabilities will expand as the system evolves and learns more about each user.

How does SELF utilise real-life human assistants?

SELF is training its model using real-life human assistants so it can understand how helpfulness works. Over time, the involvement of real-life human assistants will reduce. The workflow we're proposing is:

1. User asks SELF to assist with planning and buying something.

2. SELF applies user preferences to the user’s request and generates a draft response.

3. Draft response sent to human moderator.

4. Human moderator cannot see: User’s identity or personal info. Human moderator can see: Anonymised preferences relevant to the request.

5. Human agent amends or sends output.

6. User receives output.

How does SELF learn and improve over time?

SELF’s learning process is ongoing. SELF uses feedback and interactions to refine its understanding and improve its responses. Developers also regularly update its capabilities to introduce new features and enhance performance.

What are SELF Rewards?

You can read about SELF Rewards here. We have realised that people seem to use SELF for finding and buying things, and as there's often a commission that's earned by the platform used (in this case, SELF), we want to ensure that commission is shared with everyone involved, so everyone wins. Please note, the Amazon partnership is only valid for users in the following regions: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Users outside of those regions will not be able to earn rewards via Amazon links.

What is the SELF token and when is the crypto launching?

The SELF cryptocurrency will launch at some point in the future that is yet to announced. SELF Rewards will be convertible into the crypto token, but the conversion rate will be decided and announced when the crypto is launched. All of this will be in the future tokenomics which will reside on this site. It is likely the SELF crypto will be related to the Minima protocol in some way, due to the fact that SELF uses Minima technologically.

Our ambition is for SELF to be as rewarding as possible for you. None of the SELF team will speculate on the potential price, the exchanges it will list on, the vesting periods, or anything else - but what we can promise is that the only way we want to do this is when everyone wins.

This project is literally decades in the making, and we would prefer to be slightly slower to market than rush something forward for a purely commercial gain (see the 6th commitment in our Manifesto).

Will the big players big players catch up with the trend toward Sovereign and Ethical AI?

Obviously it's impossible for us to predict. But, logically, it's all based on their business model. Current AI offerings build from what is technically possible, developed with a scientific focus rather than a human-first ethos. None seem to have considered the consequences of their actions. But they will eventually, and it'll be painful. The likelihood of ethical washing is pretty high, but the questions that determine whether something is ethical are not, are easy to conjure and impossible to lie about. For instance: where is my data stored? Who controls my information? Will you sell it to advertisers? Etc.

In contrast, SELF views each individual holistically by design, creating a significant competitive advantage that is not only difficult to replicate, but also unlikely others would want to even if they knew how.

Our key differentiators are:

1. How we view humanity - By incorporating real-life PA expertise & Guardrails

2. How we view sovereignty - Users own & control their own data on their own SELF servers

3. How we focus - Our entire offering is personally tailored to each user4. How we enable understanding - Of the nuances between preferences, intent and action

4. How we enable understanding - Of the nuances between preferences, intent and action

These drive all parts of the business model and are unique to SELF. The approach is immensely hard to replicate because other AI offerings are:

- Highly unlikely to incorporate real-life assistants due to perceived scaling issues.

- Starting to include ‘personalisation’ features to collect more data to tailor responses, however, not all data is information, not all information is intelligence, and it’s a far cry from hyper-personalisation.

- Focused on mass market saturation rather than individually tailored experiences.

- Eroding sovereignty by design, with no signs whatsoever of re-engineering their business models away from the standard approach of big tech.

Who are SELF’s biggest competitors?

SELF integrates all other AI platforms so that when users request assistance, SELF can audition answers from other platforms and then apply the user's personal preferences to the responses - thus tailoring the responses to each individual. Due to this, competition is actually a good thing and we don't see any offering as competitive, other than competitive against human rights.

What about the Humane AI Pin?

Firstly, the Humane Pin runs Android so every interaction that happens, sits on or runs through the Alphabet data centre. This is fundamentally opposite to what we're doing at SELF.

Secondly, the Humane Pin is a hardware offering mainly, at least in terms of commercials. That requires a an astronomical amount of money to gain proper traction. The switching costs away from Apple will be immense.

Third, the volume patents that Apple/Alphabet/Microsoft have in the interactive devices space is massive. There's nothing stopping any of them offering something remarkably similar but already having a user base of 1.5bn (in the case of Apple).

What are the biggest threats you see for the project?

As we aren't a famous brand, it will take more imagination to cut through the noise and the BS of the AI market.

Plus, it's a challenge to adjust people's assumption that all AI platforms just immediately respond.

Instead, SELF isn't about immediacy it's about accuracy and privacy.

Finally, due to the uniqueness of the project, some investors may be nervous as it's not a standard offering that bundles up private information and sells it to the highest bidder.

Those platforms are easy to invest into as the commercial model is basic: the most private info is the most valuable - provided you have a total disregard for human rights.

When SELF searches the the chosen search engine, presumably it will be subject algorithms/ advertising?

No - SELF uses methods that escape advertising models that normal internet users experience.

What are the Ethical risks associated with SELF e.g capturing preferences, presumably regardless of whether these preferences/likes are beneficial for the user?

Firstly, it's down to the user to agree to what is collected, and users will be able to see what's been stored and amend/delete their information on the fly.
‍
Secondly, the only purpose of capturing preferences is to make the experience better for the user, rather than to do anything else with the preferences - so the model is geared towards what will help more, rather than what will be able to be sold more (which is literally the standard big tech model).

How do I provide feedback or report issues?

You can provide feedback or report issues through the dedicated #support channel in Discord. Your input is valuable in helping us improve SELF’s functionality and reliability.

Can SELF understand multiple languages?

SELF’s language capabilities may vary during the test phase, but the goal is to make it multilingual and accessible to users around the world as it develops.

Can I use emails and voice messages to communicate with SELF?

Currently it is not possible to use emails or voice messages to communicate with SELF. However, we are actively working on developing this feature, and it should be available in future versions.

Can SELF create documents and research material on my behalf?

No, SELF is not designed to create documentation or research material. SELF is an admin and lifestyle tool that is primarily designed to assist with plans and purchases.

Can I communicate with SELF via the telephone?

Currently it is not possible to have voice conversations with SELF. However, we are actively working on developing this feature, and it should be available in future versions.

Can SELF make purchases on behalf of its users?

Currently it is not possible for SELF to make purchases on your behalf. However, we are actively working on developing this feature, and it should be available in future versions.

Can SELF send a reminder to me?

Absolutely. Knowing your preferred email address, SELF can send you email notifications and even create calendar entries to remind you of important tasks, events, or deadlines.

Can SELF access my loyalty points from a 3rd party?

Currently, it is not possible for SELF to access 3rd party loyal point systems. However, we are actively working on developing this feature, and it should be available in future versions.

Can SELF give financial or medical advice?

It is not ethical or responsible for SELF to provide financial or medical advice. Financial and medical advice should be sought from qualified and licensed professionals. SELF is an admin and lifestyle tool that is primarily designed to assist with plans, and purchases.

Is my data safe?

SELF is designed to respect and protect your privacy, and follow strict data protection guidelines. Our view is that your data should only be owned and controlled by you. You may let SELF work with your data, but only you set the conditions.

How does a Hyper-Personal AI-Powered Assistant work?

SELF uses a unique Personal Language Model that learns from you, your preferences, global information and filters that are applied to all content interaction, together with machine learning algorithms. SELF learns from your interactions to provide increasingly tailored responses over time.

How frequently will updates and improvements be made to SELF?

We plan to release regular updates and improvements based on evolving technology and user feedback. Your input will drive the evolution of SELF.

I'm concerned about the potential dangers of AI, how is SELF addressing the risks?

In our view, as the less moralistic players are already out of the gates, the first thing we need to do is to bring an alternative, highly moralistic version to market. One that works for the human not against. One that cares about you rather than sees you as a battery. The platforms today aren't created out of care, they're created out of scientific fascination and, we fear, without a great deal of consequence-based scenario planning. So, to put SELF in that mix? That's the least we can do.

Of course, since the dawn of innovation with fire on demand, we've found that there's initially chaos before balance is found in terms of utilising the innovation itself.
AI is unlikely to differ from this course...so what we're doing about it is to show the potential balance early on, in an attempt to lessen the chaotic impact and accelerate the realisation of how these tools can help rather than hinder.

Where can I get more information and updates about SELF?

You can stay updated on our progress by joining us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram and Discord.