Meet the former Apple designer building a new AI interface at Hark

Hark, a stealth AI startup founded by serial entrepreneur Brett Adcock, is pursuing an ambitious vision to fundamentally redesign human-AI interaction. The company's core thesis, outlined in an internal memo, is that today's AI models "feel quite dumb" and the devices we use to access them are "fundamentally pre-AI." Hark aims to move beyond AI as an app or website layer, instead designing multi-modal models, hardware, and interfaces in tandem to create a "seamless end-to-end personal intelligence product." This system would have a persistent memory of a user's life and interact with the world in real time, drawing comparisons to sci-fi assistants like Jarvis or Her.

A key hire driving this vision is Director of Design Abidur Chowdhury, a former Apple industrial designer who led the team behind the iPhone Air. Chowdhury left Apple after meeting with Adcock and buying into the mission to automate life's mundane tasks, like booking travel or planning renovations, which he describes as sources of daily anxiety. In an interview, Chowdhury hinted that Hark's approach likely won't involve popular wearable concepts like AI pins or glasses, expressing discomfort with putting "a layer between humanity and the interfaces we use in the world." While details remain sparse, Chowdhury confirmed the public can anticipate a first release of Hark's AI models this summer, marking the initial step toward their sci-fi-inspired ambition.