Atlanta-based startup helps senior users share stories using AI

“We were in the car together,” Hasty told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was the (COVID-19) pandemic, and it was the first time we really spent hours together, and she was telling me all the stories. And she had all this information about our family and history, and some of it I’d heard before. Some of it was brand new. I’m driving the car, and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to record this.’”

Credit: Contributed by Nick Hasty

Credit: Contributed by Nick Hasty

By trip’s end, Hasty had decided to build a website his mother could talk into. There was trial and error. The first time she tried it, the site crashed after about 30 minutes. But Hasty was inspired to keep going with the idea of using AI to fast track the process of putting out a life story.

He wanted to circumvent the practice of writing and keep stories in audio format for several reasons. He saw a need to cut down on work and time for users producing stories. He saw the ease with which audio files could be shared with interested parties. And the final product features the participant’s actual voice, which can add to the experience for listeners.

Beginning a company

Hasty grew up in Canton and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Georgia. He earned a graduate degree from New York University in creative technology and eventually landed at Giphy, the animated file database Meta acquired in 2020, where he began in engineering and moved over to AI. By August 2024, he had left the company to focus full time on Linda AI.

He is still playing with prompts and getting user feedback. He’s had help from an acquaintance who worked for StoryCorps, the oral history project. Together, they’ve come up with questions the AI interviewer, Linda, expounds upon to produce a sequence of queries for users — where they grew up, what kind of pets they had, etc.

When a user finishes answering on a topic — usually a 20-minute process — the program creates a podcast episode with an intro from Linda, the user’s words, an outro and a transcript.

Credit: Contributed by Nick Hasty

Credit: Contributed by Nick Hasty

Improving the model

The model is subscription-based, explained Hasty; when users download the app, they get a few free interviews, and they can create a trailer to share. Initial questions fall into the childhood and getting-to-know-you categories. Those who want to go deeper into topics like love and relationships, work, history or military service pay for a subscription.

So far, Hasty said, Linda AI has drawn a range of ages.

“Definitely, the intention is to target the 55-plus, and I’m getting some of those,” he said. “But I’ve been running ads on different platforms and just trying to get like a little trickle of people in so that I can see how they use the app and then try to improve it over time. … It takes a long time to get a product right to make it perfect.”

Some users, he said, feel shy initially about talking to a machine and hearing their own voices reflected back via recording, but the final product often makes any discomfort worth persevering.

“The motivations are sharing and getting their stuff down and putting it somewhere, and then letting other people hear it. So, they push through,” Hasty said. “The surprising thing, I think, is how some people go really deep — like some people will talk to Linda, and they will really share a lot and become very vulnerable, which is surprising.”

Connection through tech

In an age where personal interaction is dwindling, the platform can help with connection.

“Ideally, everyone would get together and talk about stuff. But it’s harder now for families to spend time together because they’re geographically separated or both parents work,” he said. “I can go for a walk or go exercise at the gym, and I can listen to my mom, and I can learn stuff about her that I never knew,” he said. “And then, when we come back together, there’s that bond that’s grown.”

The 55-plus demographic, Hasty contended, has been largely left out when it comes to the tech world. Being able to use this type of technology can feel empowering, especially in an age where innovations like AI can feel intimidating.

“Technology can help us create things,” he said. “And that makes us feel good. It can help us get better and closer together. It doesn’t have to be this kind of monolithic ‘This is all bad.’ Now, we can build really cool things, like you can talk to a computer, and the computer can listen to your voice, and then it can create things for you — anything you want. … To me this is a very revolutionary wave of technology that’s coming that’s going to allow us to build really powerful interfaces.”

Aging in Atlanta readers may redeem a free three-month subscription to Linda AI after downloading it from the app store. Use code: AJCLINDA.