Hello!
I’m Daniel, co-founder of Inanimate. We are working on something exciting — and we wanted to share it with you. Here goes.
Using AI in daily life feels incredible. It helps with deeper research, faster code, cleaner design, better writing, and so much more.
But to access these powerful models, we still rely on software and devices built for an old paradigm of computing. Browsers — introduced in the 90s — were designed for the read–write web. Smartphone apps — born in the 00s — were made for a mobile, social world, not for AI.
We’ve invented a god, and then trapped it in a box. We need something better.
Enter: the third device. Beyond personal computers and smartphones, third devices are AI-native hardware that create radically better interfaces between humans and AI.
The dominant vision for third devices today is the Augmented Self: glasses, pins, pendants, wristbands, rings. Personal, wearable, intimate. Some are gaining traction -but the social norms aren’t yet settled.
We have a different vision.
What if, instead of augmenting the individual, we augmented the environment? Instead of changing the user, we change the space around them. This is the Augmented Environment.
Wait, what?
By using common sensors in everyday devices, applying intelligence “too cheap to meter,” and leaning on conversational computing (starting with voice), we can give ordinary spaces extraordinary capabilities.
Rooms become computers you can walk into - and walk away from. Environments where intelligence is ambient. Room-scale, multi-user, multi-modal. Present, collaborative, conversational agentic capabilities for any space. No more typing to chatbots.
So this is what we’re building: devices and a platform to make this real.
Affordable, scalable technology that gives people new agency over their world -tech available for consumers to buy, and a platform for partners to build on.
If we get this right, we can help shape the future of computing. Make it more real, more social, more human.
Really? Yes. We’ve invented some radical new technology - and the prototypes are wild. We can’t wait to show you more.
We — because I’m extremely lucky to be building this with my co-founder, the inimitable Matt Webb. Matt is a deep thinker, a brilliant inventor, and has an extreme bias for action. I genuinely believe he is one of the most exciting technologists working today.
So: Hello World. This is Inanimate.
An interface for intelligence to augment spaces — not faces. 😊