buildOne report1 publisher Instinct's unrequested shopping picks test how a possibly commission-earning agent decides to speak first
Three Instinct users told Business Insider its personal agent sent them shopping picks they never requested, including a $250.75 suitcase. None were shown to be paid, but with merchant commissions in Instinct's plan, when the agent pitches unprompted should be the user's call.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives70
- Confidence50
Instinct is valued at ten times the yearly purchases its invite-only agent books
Instinct raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation this week, four times its August price, for an AI assistant open only by invitation. The price rests on its founder's claim of nearly $1 billion in yearly purchases routed through a free app.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption25
- Hype gap+50
- Incentives60
- Confidence40
buildConfirmed3 publishers Instinct raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation, four times the price TechCrunch reported for its August round. Its agent works through users' own screens and accounts, so permission and recovery are Instinct's to engineer before any app maker is asked.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 23%
- Operator
- Operator 27%
- Investor
- Investor 50%
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption20
- Hype gap+45
- Incentives60
- Confidence60
Instinct raised $250m at a $2.5bn valuation after handing VCs the first invites
Noah Shinn gave venture capitalists the first invites to his AI assistant. Instinct now carries a $2.5bn valuation. The technique for making agents learn from their own failures is one Shinn published in 2023, before GPT-4.
Reality
- Evidence46
- Adoption22
- Hype gap+34
- Incentives72
- Confidence54
buildOne report1 publisher Instinct's reported memory relies on keyword matching, not semantic search, with a once-a-day write job
Dhravya Shah spent three days probing the personal agent from the outside and reports git-tracked Markdown searched by keyword, with a background pass he clocked taking 23 hours and 16 minutes to commit one preference.
Reality
- Evidence42
- Adoption24
- Hype gap+28
- Incentives76
- Confidence58