As founder and CEO of a healthy grocery delivery service Hungryroot, Ben McKean has been researching the power of artificial intelligence technologies to improve your business. But with the launch of his new side project, an app called Every — McKean wants to explore using AI to help people form deeper relationships with themselves and others and find common ground.
Currently structured as a nonprofit, Every's iOS app leverages AI technologies to create "thought-provoking games" aimed at self-discovery.
For example, all users start with a game called "Inner Odyssey" that challenges you to choose the photo that best represents the place you would like to explore, among options such as a cobblestone city street, a natural landscape with a river and trees , a fantastic castle or a remote island. You are then asked follow-up questions, such as who you would travel with, what role you would play, what advice for your trip would suit you best, etc.
As you play, the app shows you how others answer the same question, and when you're done, you'll be asked to see who among your connections (i.e. your uploaded contact list) also answered similarly.
McKean says the idea of creating an app focused on human connection was an idea that had been brewing for some time, especially after the Covid pandemic led to a world where everyone felt more disconnected than ever.
"There are a large number of people who feel disconnected even from people very close to them," he explains. “58% of Americans say they feel like no one in their life knows them well, which is a shocking statistic. And 70% of Americans feel that distrust is harming American society,” says McKean, citing various statistics about the epidemic of loneliness and the connection.
Additionally, McKean says he is also impacted by these issues through his own business experiences leading teams and discovering how difficult it can be to form connections at work. In fact, McKean foresees the possibility of modifying Every's model for use in the place of work to help colleagues to make connections, but with fewer personal questions.
Despite the app's focus on human connectivity, it may be a surprise to learn that Every games were built using AI, specifically, training large language models and leveraging technology from OpenAI and Midjourney. McKean said this process helped develop his AI skills, which could impact his core business at Hungryroot, which is a company heavily driven by AI.
All the games in the app are inspired by a theme or a person, which is the initial input for the AI.
For the latter, the company is partnering with inspiring leaders for some of the topics, such as Hector Guadalupe founder of asecondufoundation.org, which helps people develop skills to be successful in life after serving time in prison. The topic or persona is used to set the context for generative AI. The team then uses a structured format for the games they incorporated into the prompts to create the questions. (Guadalupe's AI-inspired game will launch on October 25.)
The AI production may still need some human intervention, as the team has only been training its models for six months, McKean notes, but essentially, the AI creates the games entirely. The images that accompany the game questions are created using Midjourney.
The plan is to release a new game every day (hence the name of the app) and each day of the week will have a particular theme. For example, Monday games might focus on careers, while Friday games might be about fun, Saturday games might be about family connections, and Sunday games might be about spirituality or philosophy. McKean says Every also aims for games to adapt to timely events. Thus, in the case of the next presidential elections, it is possible that we will see a game linked to politics, for example.
After playing, the app offers inspiring content to explore based on your answers, such as videos that highlight particular topics, such as following your dreams or the importance of creativity.
Another tab in the app, “Map,” uses AI to generate a map of your traits based on the points you earn while playing Every games. After trying the first game, the map told me that my core traits included things like reason and happiness in the simplest of things, which I don't think is debatable. You can also approve or reject their findings if you agree or disagree to improve your analysis.
The idea is that by playing these games, you are not only developing greater self-awareness, but you are also learning how to share commonalities with other people you know, which could lead to deepening those relationships. For example, you might discover that an old friend also likes international travel or that a colleague prioritizes humility in the workplace. As you learn from the insights the app shares, you may be inspired to take additional action, such as engaging in conversations about your discoveries.
“A lot of the mission around this is about facilitating connection with people, a one-on-one connection, but it's also about helping to surface commonalities in a little more holistic way,” McKean says. "And part of the belief is that if you present the same game to each person, you can find common ground between two people who may be very different."
Every was self-funded by McKean and is run by two women, Sara McKean (Ben's cousin) and Maya Valiath, while application development was carried out through an outsourced company. The plan for now is to run Every as a free app and side project. But if it takes off, McKean will leave the door open to turning it into more of a business, potentially with the backing of investors.
The app has been running in beta since March, released publicly in the app store. It is available as a free download with no in-app purchases.
