Getting a piece of the Pi: Google DeepMind and LinkedIn cofounders launch AI chatbot

By Abby Wallace

An artificial intelligence startup founded by the cofounders of LinkedIn and Google DeepMind has launched a new chatbot.

The company, Inflection AI, said the chatbot, named Pi, uses AI technology developed in house to hold conversations with users, give feedback and work through “tricky decisions.”

“We think of Pi as a digital companion on hand whenever you want to learn something new, when you need a sounding board to talk through a tricky moment in your day, or just pass the time with a curious and kind counterpart”, said Inflection’s cofounder and chief executive, Mustafa Suleyman, who previously cofounded the British AI lab, DeepMind.

The new chatbot comes as tech giants like Microsoft and Google pour money into harvesting AI since OpenAI launched ChatGPT last Autumn.

Google launched its answer to ChatGPT, an AI bot named Bard, in February. In the same month, Microsoft teamed up with OpenAI to incorporate AI technology into its Bing search engine.

What sets it apart?

Unlike other generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard, which can answer questions and generate new information from large data sets, Inflection AI’s founders have been keen to stress that Pi’s purpose is simple conversation.

The company described the bot as “playful and silly.”

Suleymantold the Financial Times that Pi would not “do lists, or coding, it doesn’t do travel plans, it won’t write your marketing strategy, or your essay for school.”

The service is currently free to use across platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

Inflection AI was founded by Suleyman alongside Karén Simonyan and Reid Hoffman, who previously cofounded LinkedIn, in 2022. Suleyman cofounded DeepMind in 2010 before it was acquired by Google in 2014.

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