PIN AI Launches Personalized, Private AI Assistant App with Blockchain-Based Security

PIN AI launches mobile app letting you make your own personalized, private DeepSeek or Llama-powered AI model on your phone

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Thanks to Her and numerous other works of science fiction, it's pretty easy to imagine a world in which everyone has their own personalized AI assistant -- a helper who knows who we are, our occupations, our hobbies, our goals and passions, our likes and dislikes...what makes us "tick," essentially. Some AI tools today offer a fairly bare bones, limited version of this functionality, such as ChatGPT's memory feature and CharacterAI. But these still rely on your information flowing up to corporate servers outside of your control for analysis and processing. They also don't allow for many third-party transactions, having your AI assistant make purchases on your behalf. For those especially concerned about privacy, or who want an AI model that actually retrains itself to adapt to the user's individual preferences -- making a unique AI assistant unlike any in the entire world -- you're kind of on your own. Until now: a new startup called PIN AI (not to be confused with the poorly reviewed hardware device the Ai Pin by Humane) today emerged from stealth to launch its first mobile app, which lets a user select an underlying open source AI model that runs directly, largely on their smartphone and remains private and totally customized to their preferences. Built with a decentralized infrastructure that prioritizes privacy, PIN AI aims to challenge Big Tech's dominance over user data by ensuring that Personal AI serves individuals -- not corporate interests. Founded by AI and blockchain experts from Columbia, MIT, and Stanford, PIN AI is led by Davide Crapis, Ben Wu, and Bill Sun, who bring deep experience in AI research, large-scale data infrastructure, and blockchain security. The company is backed by major investors, including a16z Crypto (CSX), Hack VC, Sequoia Capital U.S. Scout, and prominent blockchain pioneers like Near founder Illia Polosukhin, SOL Foundation president Lily Liu, SUI founder Evan Cheng, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. Personal AI realized PIN AI introduces an alternative to centralized AI models that collect and monetize user data. Unlike cloud-based AI controlled by large tech firms, PIN AI's Personal AI runs locally on user devices, allowing for secure, customized AI experiences without third-party surveillance. At the heart of PIN AI is a user-controlled data bank, which enables individuals to store and manage their own personal information while allowing developers access to anonymized, multi-category insights -- ranging from shopping habits to investment strategies. This approach ensures that AI-powered services can benefit from high-quality contextual data without compromising user privacy. "The problem today is that all the big players claim they do personal AI -- Apple, Google, Meta -- but what are they really doing?" said Davide Crapis, Co-Founder of PIN AI, in an in-person interview with VentureBeat conducted earlier this month. "They're taking the gold mine in your phone and exploiting all that information to figure out what to push to you." PIN AI launched a web-only version late last year that has already gained tremendous traction, with over 2 million alpha users via Telegram and a Discord community of 220,000 members. The new mobile app launching today in the U.S. and multiple regions also includes key features such as: * The "God Model" (Guardian of Data) - A tool that helps users track how well their AI understands them, ensuring it aligns with their preferences. * Ask PIN AI - A personalized AI assistant capable of handling tasks like financial planning, travel coordination, and product recommendations. * Open-source integrations - Users can connect apps like Gmail, social media platforms, and financial services to their Personal AI, training it to better serve them without exposing data to third parties. "With our app, you have a personal AI that is your model. You own the weights, and it's completely private, with privacy-preserving fine-tuning," Crapis added. He told VentureBeat that the app currently supports several open source AI models as the base model from which the user can begin personalizing their assistant, including small versions of DeepSeek and Meta's Llama. Blockchain-based ledger for credentials and data access PIN AI's infrastructure is built on blockchain protocols, ensuring security, transparency, and user control. * Data is stored locally - Unlike cloud-based AI systems, PIN AI keeps all user data on personal devices rather than centralized servers. * Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for authentication - Credentials and sensitive computations occur within a secure enclave, preventing external access -- even from PIN AI itself. * Blockchain registry for financial transparency - Key actions are authenticated on-chain while user data remains private and locally stored. * Interoperability with emerging AI protocols - PIN AI is designed to integrate with future decentralized AI and blockchain projects, ensuring long-term adaptability. By decentralizing AI infrastructure, PIN AI aims to balance privacy, security, and efficiency, allowing users to retain ownership of their digital footprint while still benefiting from AI-driven insights and automation. "We designed our protocol around privacy using modern cryptographic methods like Trusted Execution Environments. No one -- not even us -- can see your authentication keys," Crapis said. User-based AI focus The launch of PIN AI comes at a time when concerns over data privacy and AI monopolization are at an all-time high. Ben Wu, Co-Founder of PIN AI, emphasized the importance of data sovereignty, stating, "We're uniting open-source AI builders and developers to build a foundation for open personal AI, where the user owns the AI 100%." Bill Sun, Co-Founder, explained the broader vision: "Think of it like J.A.R.V.I.S. from Iron Man -- the most loyal executive system that evolves into your personal AI assistant." Crapis further elaborated on PIN AI's approach, stating, "We're creating a data bank that lets you reclaim your personal data from big tech -- your Google data, Facebook data, even Robinhood and financial data -- so your personal AI can run on it." Beyond personal use, PIN AI envisions a network of personal AI agents that can interact with external services on the user's behalf. "Your personal AI can coordinate with other personal AIs, interact with business AIs, and even autonomously execute tasks like buying a gift for a friend based on past conversations," Sun explained. PIN AI's co-founders told VentureBeat that they will make money by charging transaction fees for other AI agents to access users' information -- with their permission. What's next for PIN AI? With AI technology rapidly evolving, PIN AI aims to define the future of personalized, decentralized AI. By combining on-device intelligence, blockchain security, and open-source integrations, the company provides an alternative to Big Tech-controlled AI models, ensuring that individuals -- not corporations -- own and control their data. "Our business model is simple: instead of a centralized company like Apple or Google taking a huge cut, we take a small commission on agent interactions -- more like a gas fee on Ethereum," Wu explained. "This is just the beginning," Sun added. "In the future, your AI will connect with everything -- your desktop, your smart devices, even your humanoid robots -- while keeping your privacy intact." The PIN AI app is available now, offering a new level of privacy, security, and personalization in AI-driven experiences.

PIN AI launches an encrypted AI assistant with personal loyalty and privacy as its main focus

There's a focus on protecting our personal data now, perhaps more so than ever before, be it from foreign powers, Big Tech, or Elon Musk's DOGE. Consumers are wary about where their data is going, what it's being used for, and how, or if, they can put up safeguards, especially while using tech tools like search engines or AI assistants. With several AI tools and assistants hitting the market over the past couple of years -- Microsoft's Copilot and Meta's Llama, among many others -- much of our data, queries, and summaries are being fed to large tech companies, used to train their artificial intelligence models. While some users may not mind, it could turn others off, which is why one company is trying a different approach. PIN AI, a Bay Area-based AI startup, is rolling out what it calls the "personal AI network" with the launch of a mobile application this week, complete with a native large language model (LLM) that is designed to become a "personalized intelligence network," or "PIN."

a16z Crypto and Sequoia Capital-backed Personal Intelligence Network Launch

Co-founders Bill Sun and Ben Wu discussed the project with CCN. With interest in decentralized AI solutions on the rise, venture capital investors like a16z Crypto and Sequoia Capital have got in on the action. Both have thrown their weight behind a new blockchain-based platform that aims to give AI users more control over their personal data. Launched on Thursday, Feb. 13, PIN AI (Personal Intelligence Network) enables more personalized AI assistants without sacrificing data sovereignty to the Big Tech monopolies that currently dominate the market. Decentralized AI Against Big Tech Data Monopolies In the world of virtual assistants, a handful of big names including Apple, Amazon and Google have traditionally dominated. With the advent of powerful foundation AI models in recent years, OpenAI and Microsoft have become more important, but overall, Big Tech maintains an outsized influence on the technology. In an interview with CCN, PIN AI Co-founder Ben Wu pointed to privacy shortcomings in the Big Tech model, which gives users little control over their personal data. At the same time, Big Techs "are not opening up their platforms to create a kind of open data sharing [...] which is essential for personalized experiences," he added. PIN AI seeks to solve both problems posed by Big Tech data monopolies. On the one hand, it lets users run AI locally and connect to other apps in a secure manner. On the other, it gives developers the tools to integrate various third-party data streams into their AI apps. AI at the Edge Even though Apple and Google have both moved toward more on-device AI, their continued reliance on cloud-based models means users of Big Tech assistants must sacrifice control of their data if they want to enjoy more personalized experiences. However, Wu observed that "in the future, we think personal AI is going to happen on the edge," using a term that refers to on-device processing. To balance privacy, performance, and personalization, PIN AI deploys a hybrid model that combines on-device and cloud-based processing. This ensures sensitive operations remain local while leveraging powerful cloud models for complex tasks. This hybrid approach extends to how the platform stores and organizes data. A key feature of PIN AI is the Personal Index -- a knowledge graph that organizes user data from various on-device and cloud sources to provide contextually relevant and personalized responses. PIN AI Personal Index Thanks to the Personal Index, Wu said the aim is to provide services that are not only more private and secure but more personalized and useful than Big Tech AI. For example, PIN AI's Chief Scientist Bill Sun described a scenario in which a user wanted their AI to order some food. By collating not just their order history, but additional context like social media follows and YouTube views, personalized AI could figure out what kind of food they like and what their typical budget might be. The platform can then "combine all this contextual information to generate a personalized transaction request to all kinds of service providers," he added. These service providers could be big ones like Uber Eats or DoorDash. However, whereas only the largest app developers have the resources to develop Siri or Alexa integrations, Sun said more open AI systems could pave the way for "smaller, mom-and-pop stores" to participate too.