Jola founders take off AI assistant packages to power their impetus for privacy resistant Genai

Jola, the previous mobile manufacturer has become a confidential AI Business-Business Startup Sister, Venho.ai -I took off the package from AI assistant, which is advertised as a “completely private” alternative to the launch of cloud giants to retrieve data throughout your personal information.

The AI ​​assistant is intended to integrate with applications such as email, calendar and social media accounts to provide the user with a conversational power tool that can be on the surface, but also perform actions on behalf of the user. This means things like summarizing emails and documents, reservation meetings, filtering in social media and web searches.

But they say that the tool will also be able to rotate new AI agents on the go to further expand the usefulness as long as the required API keys are accessible to it. The AI ​​agent market is also part of the plan scheduled to launch next month.

Elsewhere, they bend into the idea of ​​AI assistant as a shopping aid and a personal assistant – which means that the user can, for example The cloud.

AI assistant software does not stand alone; The Jola with Vento’s Jola has been Developing your own AI hardware in the last year – Technologies we have earlier called “AI agents in a box” -Who is also aimed at reviving this vision for a highly personalized convenience of AI without compromise of confidentiality.

Their approach relies on the use of smaller AI models that can be hosted locally to manage many of the user data, together with the pre-processing and vector database that combines data from their connected accounts to accelerate the user experience at the request level.

IoComing AI assistant software aims to sit on all this orchestration of data and automate the switch between different AI agents, as required by the user’s needs.

Noise

Providing TechCrunch an exclusive review of the AI ​​Assistant Tech’s entry commercial exhibition here at the Mobile World Congress Commercial Exhibition (MWC) in Barcelon is used to develop.

They point to their long history of mobile hardware and OS development (with Sailfish) and Android App Integrations – arguing that it gives them a foot in such a race.

“Currently, a massive cognitive load is coming because of AI. And I think we need this help to filter things, “Sarnio says, suggesting that the AI ​​helper will become a major noise cut tool. “This is your own tool – you own this tool.”

AI assistant software – which is displayed under the Mindy brand, an avatar of female and feeling, but which the user will be able to customize to his own tastes – starts immediately as a subscription service hosted on a private cloud managed by Venho.Ai.

In a demonstration of this, TechCrunch saw that Saarnio interacts with the AI ​​assistant who works on his laptop-justifying requests through an interface in chat-style interface and returning answers as text and speech. Such as asking what emails there are; Creating tasks related to email added to a list of tasks; and receiving AI to book a meeting slot. (Note: It is also possible to speak assistant inquiries.)

Initially, there was a slight pause before the first answer came back, but the following answers were faster. Saarnio also noted that they are working on more acceleration and optimization – in order to reduce the response rate within one second.

A network search request he tried to demonstrate – prayed to receive information about a company – failed to return the demanded data, but Saarnio subsequently stated that this was because the laptop was not connected to the Internet, which means that API for Google search is not functioning.

In addition to offering the AI ​​assistant through its own private cloud, the tool will be provided to the Mind2 Jolla AI device next month – which the team sends to the early adopters since January.

This means that Mind2 owners will be able to commit suicide on the AI ​​assistant of this personal server-style hardware to discard the need to use any third-party cloud service to hold their data (even the “private cloud” that is placed by Venho). Certainly, when it comes to requests that can be executed on the small AI models placed inside the device – which include a model of the Deepseek 1.5BN parameter and the Meta Llama 1B parameter model of Saarnio.

“It’s able to understand and give you the right answers – what emails you have, what content is – then it doesn’t make huge mistakes. But if you give him a huge context window (such as uploading a large request document), he is confused, “he says, explaining when the device may need to focus on a foreign cloud for answers.

More intense processing requests may require technology to use large linguistic models (LLMS)-where confidentiality promises must be dropped, as the user data will be exposed to someone else T & CS. But having a conversational assistant sitting on the system, the suggestion is that users will be able to instruct AI how they want to work for them – such as, say, tell the assistant to never send any health information to LLMS – further customizing the experience in their comfort zone.

The early pricing of birds for the AI ​​assistant (the first 1000 users) is determined at $ 10 a month (after a 14-day free trial)-but the final price will be about 20 hours, on Saarnio. (For those who buy Jolla hardware also 16GB RAM, 128GB memory Mind 2 The device has a full price of EUR 699, although the team still offers a discount for early adopters.)

During the year, since we last approached the Jolla hardware personally, the widget is now growing in size. Per Pienimäki, the increase in its print (now it’s about the size of a small, clumsy soft cover) is most reduced to the requirements for heat management -with the box already wrapping a greater radiator connection and other heat control components, along with the processing hardware.

The final assembly of the kit is carried out in Finland, in a former Nokia facility in Salo, and it also notes, which at least has an enticing opportunity for the efforts of the startup to have the chance to revive the former Finnish technological Slavs. (Reminder: Sailfish OS has been developed as a fork of an abandoned Nokia software project by former employees.)

So far, the device with about 500 Mind 2 has been sent to early adoptive parents – with the team that embarks on the interest of the Sailfish enthusiasts. Saarnio says they also receive useful reviews and help with errors adjustments from these early adoptive parents through a discord community. “I would recommend this to anyone,” he notes about the approach.

And although they are dealing with the sale of the kit and the related services, they also believe that there is an interesting opportunity for B2B, which is just beginning.

In fact, Saarnio says some Telcos have seen the potential for the hardware to offer a Home Hub style solution that could work well for many family members living under one room-with other words “It’s like a private Amazon Alexa” Saarnio adds.