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> AI for communicating with dogs This is borderline satire. You don't need some crazy new idea to do a startup. You need to execute well on something people wa

> AI for communicating with dogs This is borderline satire. You don't need some crazy new idea to do a startup. You need to execute well on something people want, and if you're out looking for ideas, your best bet is probably to enter an existing market and cater to a subset of it better than others are doing.

wonderous 9y ago
Most animals are way more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand and pet tech would easily be a billion dollar market. EDIT: I would also be happy to do this startup if YC adds me to the next batch; already offered to do one for the “Social Network for Children”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15715865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15715865
- wanderingjew 9y ago
  Real life is not a Pixar movie.
- marcosdumay 9y ago
  > more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand The average person can understand way more than you are giving credit. And anyway, if the average person can't understand some communication, than it's something completely out the league of current AIs. It's the one thing we are good at.
  - wonderous 9y ago
    There’s a long list of AI that now outperforms humans both at the per task level and at scale. Beyond that, as defined by the spec for the startup, I have no reason to believe AI built for this would not be able to do the same for this task.
  - thephyber 9y ago
    > than it's something completely out the league of current AIs I beg to differ[1]. The average human isn't autistic, but there is still significant value in using AI to tell us what we are doing wrong (and wrap the product up so it doesn't make us fell like crap while we are doing it). Behavior modification bots would be incredibly useful for helping people see their own shortcomings (cognitive science research shows us that we frequently see the flaws in others but are systematically blind to our own). [1] http://autismglass.stanford.edu/ http://autismglass.stanford.edu/ [2] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609142/andrew-ng-has-a-chatbot-that-can-help-with-depression/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609142/andrew-ng-has-a-ch...
- simplyluke 9y ago
  >Most animals are way more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand Is the market the average person though or the person willing to spend several hundred dollars on tech for their pet? My guess is the latter would mostly consist of people who have spent decades in close contact with pets and are able to reliably read the body language of a dog with rather extreme accuracy and nuance. If you've never owned a dog they're rather difficult to read. If you've been around them as long as you've been around people you can almost immediately discern a lot of information about them based on a glance.
  - ggg9990 9y ago
    People in their 30s without kids are willing to spend considerable sums on their pet.
jogjayr 9y ago
It's not so crazy if you apply it to babies. I'm sure a lot of new parents would very much appreciate knowing why their baby is crying now. What's that old quote about babies and the same error code for many different problems?
- sjg007 9y ago
  Parents usually figure this out after a few weeks. Also kids needs change over developmental time. So crying is just language for communicating based on emotion: Hangry, tired, hurt, potentially dirty diaper.
- sdrothrock 9y ago
  While not babies, a lot of parents have problems communicating with pre-verbal and basically non-verbal infants... but it's also been found that infants can actually learn and effectively use signs (not to be confused with ASL or a distinct sign language) to communicate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_sign_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_sign_language
  - GordonS 9y ago
    We did this with both our kids. Our youngest, who is only 8 months old, can already sign in makaton for 'more', 'milk' and 'finished' - and we only started teaching him a few weeks ago! It really is incredible what they are capable of at such a young age. Other parents tell me all the time about how their kids are getting frustrated because the can't communicate verbally - I really don't know why signing for babies isn't more popular.
    - sdrothrock 9y ago
      How do the other parents react when you tell them about signing? I wonder if it's related to a perception of signing as "for handicapped people" or something, or a worry about it replacing speech.
      - GordonS 9y ago
rad_gruchalski 9y ago
"It's like Facebook, but for dogs."
- ssijak 9y ago
  What about me? https://imgur.com/gallery/Yqgy8 https://imgur.com/gallery/Yqgy8
rhizome 9y ago
"Blah blah, Ginger. Blah blah blah Ginger blah blah..."
Gargoyle 9y ago
This is something people want. With the right approach you could actually improve the happiness of hundreds of millions of people. The existing market is tremendously huge.
simooooo 9y ago
Pretty much anything with AI mentioned in the first line is an eye-roller. Then the dogs part... wtf

wonderous 9y ago

Most animals are way more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand and pet tech would easily be a billion dollar market. EDIT: I would also be happy to do this startup if YC adds me to the next batch; already offered to do one for the “Social Network for Children”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15715865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15715865

wanderingjew 9y ago
Real life is not a Pixar movie.
marcosdumay 9y ago
> more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand The average person can understand way more than you are giving credit. And anyway, if the average person can't understand some communication, than it's something completely out the league of current AIs. It's the one thing we are good at.
- wonderous 9y ago
  There’s a long list of AI that now outperforms humans both at the per task level and at scale. Beyond that, as defined by the spec for the startup, I have no reason to believe AI built for this would not be able to do the same for this task.
- thephyber 9y ago
  > than it's something completely out the league of current AIs I beg to differ[1]. The average human isn't autistic, but there is still significant value in using AI to tell us what we are doing wrong (and wrap the product up so it doesn't make us fell like crap while we are doing it). Behavior modification bots would be incredibly useful for helping people see their own shortcomings (cognitive science research shows us that we frequently see the flaws in others but are systematically blind to our own). [1] http://autismglass.stanford.edu/ http://autismglass.stanford.edu/ [2] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609142/andrew-ng-has-a-chatbot-that-can-help-with-depression/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609142/andrew-ng-has-a-ch...
simplyluke 9y ago
>Most animals are way more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand Is the market the average person though or the person willing to spend several hundred dollars on tech for their pet? My guess is the latter would mostly consist of people who have spent decades in close contact with pets and are able to reliably read the body language of a dog with rather extreme accuracy and nuance. If you've never owned a dog they're rather difficult to read. If you've been around them as long as you've been around people you can almost immediately discern a lot of information about them based on a glance.
- ggg9990 9y ago
  People in their 30s without kids are willing to spend considerable sums on their pet.

jogjayr 9y ago

It's not so crazy if you apply it to babies. I'm sure a lot of new parents would very much appreciate knowing why their baby is crying now. What's that old quote about babies and the same error code for many different problems?

sjg007 9y ago
Parents usually figure this out after a few weeks. Also kids needs change over developmental time. So crying is just language for communicating based on emotion: Hangry, tired, hurt, potentially dirty diaper.
sdrothrock 9y ago
While not babies, a lot of parents have problems communicating with pre-verbal and basically non-verbal infants... but it's also been found that infants can actually learn and effectively use signs (not to be confused with ASL or a distinct sign language) to communicate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_sign_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_sign_language
- GordonS 9y ago
  We did this with both our kids. Our youngest, who is only 8 months old, can already sign in makaton for 'more', 'milk' and 'finished' - and we only started teaching him a few weeks ago! It really is incredible what they are capable of at such a young age. Other parents tell me all the time about how their kids are getting frustrated because the can't communicate verbally - I really don't know why signing for babies isn't more popular.
  - sdrothrock 9y ago
    How do the other parents react when you tell them about signing? I wonder if it's related to a perception of signing as "for handicapped people" or something, or a worry about it replacing speech.
    - GordonS 9y ago

rad_gruchalski 9y ago

"It's like Facebook, but for dogs."

ssijak 9y ago
What about me? https://imgur.com/gallery/Yqgy8 https://imgur.com/gallery/Yqgy8

rhizome 9y ago

"Blah blah, Ginger. Blah blah blah Ginger blah blah..."

Gargoyle 9y ago

This is something people want. With the right approach you could actually improve the happiness of hundreds of millions of people. The existing market is tremendously huge.

simooooo 9y ago

Pretty much anything with AI mentioned in the first line is an eye-roller. Then the dogs part... wtf