KC tech company bets on digital selves powered by AI
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The & Company's launch event in KC. Photo: Courtesy of Nick Mehn
A tech company in Kansas City wants you to own your online identity through a digital persona that works across platforms and in the real world.
Why it matters: People are existing more and more online, but the data that makes up their identity — their likeness, art, preferences and personal information — is controlled by companies and siloed across platforms.
The big picture: The & Company is launching &tags ("and tags") — handles you keep for life that represent your persona online and interact on your behalf through AI.
- It's starting off as another online platform where people can connect based on location and likes, but it has the potential to shape personal transactions and experiences as people and businesses become more digitized.
Zoom in: Co-founder Aaron Sloup, who has worked as a software developer for more than two decades, tells Axios that each person owns and controls how their data is shared with &tags.
- Once the &tags go public, people can build and own their &tag for free, unless it's a business or someone wants to be the original "&Travis," for example.
State of play: The company, which is still in the testing phase, hosted a launch party in February at Keystone Innovation Lab in the Crossroads, where &tags first came online.
- Phase one is all in-app, where you can curate collections and connect with people by &tags, such as "&Travis&KansasCity&AxiosReaders."
- "No one exists on a desert island," Sloup says.
Phase two would integrate &tags with other online accounts through logins, like we see with Google, Apple and Facebook.
- That's where this gets future-y. The AI-powered tags would then interact with other &tags around you, like digital people talking.
- If you walked into a coffee shop, your tag would know your order and be authorized to pay. If you went onto a shoe website, it would know your size and gait and that you wanted to get into running, for example, and would offer you data-driven suggestions.
What they're saying: "Digital identity is going to become one of those things that people don't even think about in daily usage," Sloup says.
- He says The & Company's goal is to remove time spent on screens, freeing people up to communicate more meaningfully in person.
- "'Move the world toward joy.' That's our five-word purpose statement."
Friction point: AI's advancement is creating serious concerns about privacy and how data is being used in targeted advertising.
- Sloup says that the company will not run on ads and that &tag has encryption controls for what's public, shared only with your connections, or private.
Fun fact: The company trademarked the "&" sign for its digital uses.
What's next: The company is heading to SXSW in Austin, Texas, this weekend, with &tags set to publicly launch in April.