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Disclaimer: EndlessAI previously published a contributor article on VentureBeat announcing the launch of Lloyd in early October.
Four-year-old AI startup Endless AI not a household name…yet.
But its founders and leaders believe they have a bona fide success on their hands: their freemium. Lloyd iOS Appwhich uses proprietary video encoding and streaming technology to stream the user’s live video view to underlying AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT-4o to help with a wide variety of tasks, from repairing bikes to telling bedtime stories , has achieved more than 50,000 users. three months after a stealth launch.
41% of those users interact with the app daily, according to data provided to VentureBeat by EndlessAI.
While there is ChatGPT, it became the The fastest product in history to cross the 100 million user mark in January 2023.just two months after launch; However, it’s encouraging enough for EndlessAI CEO Roi Ginat and Executive Chairman Thomas Pompidou, who told VentureBeat in a recent video call interview that they planned to open their platform to third-party developers in early 2025 and launch an app. of consumer-facing Android in January.
Additionally, EndlessAI has already started updating Lloyd with what it calls “powers,” or as Pompidou describes them, “basically large language models (LLMs) that are fine-tuned and give the consumer a deep dive into specific use cases.”
For example, the first Lloyd Power live now on the app is “Chef”, which gives you a real-time, all-AI coach who watches you while you cook (if you point your smartphone camera at the stove or to the kitchen area) and gives you step-by-step guidance.
Another Lloyd Power planning to launch soon is Tour Guide, which allows users to hold their phone and see real-time contextual information about their surroundings. By capturing a video of a location, you identify points of interest, provide relevant details, and can even recommend nearby attractions or activities.
While current LLMs have struggled to process live videos efficiently due to high computational costs. EndlessAI technology overcomes this limitation and reduces the cost of video analysis by more than 99%.
Pompidou underlined the broader mission of the app: “Our mission is to bring AI to the real world. The real world is visual and live, and today’s large language models, as designed, face challenges in analyzing video accurately, at scale, and cost-effectively. “That’s what we make possible.”
This enables real-time video analysis, allowing users to interact with their environment in new ways, from diagnosing mechanical problems to creating personalized bedtime stories.
Lloyd’s main differentiation lies in its ability to process video data through LLM at a fraction of the cost typically associated with such tasks. Traditional LLM architectures are not optimized for video, making real-time video analysis prohibitively expensive and slow.
“Analyzing video with ChatGPT, assuming it were possible, would cost more than $300 per hour,” Pompidou said. “With Lloyd, we offer the same level of accuracy for just tens of cents per hour.”
This cost-effectiveness is achieved without sacrificing accuracy, setting Lloyd apart from its competitors that rely on reduced frame rates or lower resolutions to reduce costs, often at the expense of reliability.
“Our communication layer is robust in ways that other solutions are not. “It allows developers to integrate real-time AI services, such as speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and video analytics, with unmatched reliability and performance.”
As Pompidou imagines the future, he offered a glimpse into the app’s potential: “Imagine an LLM perfectly tuned and trained on every IKEA instruction manual, guiding customers step-by-step with video and recognizing errors in real time. “It’s just one example of how our technology can transform user experiences.”
Another big field EndlessAI plans to court through Lloyd and its underlying video encoding technology: law enforcement, specifically providing analysis of police body camera footage.
“If there is someone having a heart attack, he will recognize it and give the officer instructions on what to do immediately,” Pompidou said.
Although Lloyd sees exactly what you point your smartphone camera at, EndlessAI prioritizes user privacy.
“The data remains private to (users’) accounts and we only access it for support if users explicitly request support,” Ginat said.
This approach ensures strong safeguards while allowing for seamless interactions.
But as a consequence, EndlessAI isn’t exactly sure what the most popular uses for Lloyd are among its users. Anecdotally, she says her surveys and feedback forms have shown interest in food preparation, home repairs, fashion and lifestyle advice, and more.
While Lloyd’s consumer-facing features gain traction, EndlessAI is also building tools to empower developers and businesses to leverage its technology.
“Our long-term roadmap includes an SDK for developers, starting early next year,” Pompidou said. “It will allow them to create unique visual AI solutions with extreme simplicity.”
The SDK will allow developers to integrate AI vision capabilities into their own applications.
“The first offering for developers will be a robust platform for real-time API communication, connecting to OpenAI and other backends,” Ginat told VentureBeat. “Developers can choose which components they want to use, such as audio services or speech-to-text.”
Applications for these tools span industries, from creating AI-enhanced chat apps to integrating video analytics into production lines and safety monitoring systems.
EndlessAI aims to offer scalable solutions that adapt to different performance and cost requirements.
“Our developer tools will allow for on-the-fly adjustments, choosing between backend services or lightweight on-device solutions depending on use case and cost requirements,” Ginat added.
By combining robust APIs with an intuitive SDK, EndlessAI envisions a new wave of AI-powered applications that go beyond traditional text or image processing. “We will offer developers the ability to integrate various services, including video lateral processing, enhancing their sessions with additional capabilities,” Ginat said.
Lloyd’s ability to take advantage of existing smartphones, without the need for additional hardware, makes it exceptionally accessible.
By lowering barriers to entry, EndlessAI is redefining what is possible with AI in both daily life and specialized industries.
With its rapid user adoption, versatile applications, and solid roadmap, Lloyd is poised to become a defining innovation in the AI space.
“Our long-term strategy is to remain complementary to LLMs,” Pompidou said. “Even when models can process video natively, our goal is to still be the efficiency layer that makes these applications viable and profitable.”