Forerunner

Humans in the Loop is back! Join us on June 10th in SF. Space fills up fast. Apply to attend here! humansintheloop2026.com

Was a blast sharing about @hey_aristotle's progress these past few weeks. These last few weeks have been incredible. Thanks to @kirstenagreen + @ForerunnerVC team for hosting, and @trueventures for nominating us! And @Erinlens + @CCgong for the photos 📷

I left Humans in the Loop last week more convinced than ever that AI's narrative problem is solvable

Last week I presented at Humans in the Loop, @ForerunnerVC's consumer AI conference I talked about AI slop. This debate pops up on X every few weeks. For me it's pretty simple: 1. Any single model - no matter how good - leads to aesthetic mode collapse. 2. Without humans in the loop is how you end up with sameness. Sameness = slop. 3. We have to acknowledge that agents will be creating software and artifacts on the fly, and give them tools to do so tastefully. 4. At the same time, there will ALWAYS be humans doing design.

Last week, @ForerunnerVC brought together the consumer AI community for this year's Humans in the Loop. @MotherGamesgg and Divanny Lamas took center stage to share what they're building, and it was exciting to see founders pushing the boundaries of consumer AI.

I'm in San Francisco this week and got the chance to drop by @ForerunnerVC Humans in the Loop showcase for Consumer AI founders! my takeaways: 1️⃣ AI is becoming a collaborator that works with you in real-time. Apps are evolving beyond chat into interactive workspaces where users collaborate with AI agents and watch outputs take shape in real time – from travel itineraries to polished brand assets. User Interfaces are becoming more dynamic, proactive, and ambient as agents adapt to your intent and help you achieve your goals. 2️⃣ Every app is vying to be the source-of-truth context layer for AI. Apps are all racing to turn unstructured user content/behavior into context that powers smarter, more personalized experiences. For @buildyourcorner, that means transforming restaurant reviews and photos into rich interest graphs for better recommendations than Yelp. For Alta , it means digitizing your messy wardrobe so it can help you plan outfits and discover new looks. For Indexed Labs, this means ingesting your overflowing email inbox and busy calendar to organize your life. 3️⃣ Text Messages are becoming the new go-to distribution channel for consumer apps. The hardest problem in consumer is getting users to download a new app. Every extra step adds friction, and friction kills adoption. That's why more startups are embedding themselves into existing apps & workflows instead of trying to invent new behaviors. For example, companies like @interaction use iMessage as their primary distribution channel because it's already where users spend their time chatting. At the end, OpenAI's Nick Turley advised all founders to ask themselves: "How does my product get better as models get better?" It's a GOATED question. But I still believe the top priority is solving real, important customer problems that meaningfully improve peoples' lives. If you can do that -- going really deep and doing it exceptionally well -- then your product's value will only compound as AI model capabilities continue improving!!!

Lots of fun seeing emerging AI consumer products and demos at the @ForerunnerVC humans in the loop Excited about progress and whitespace of problems worth building in: 1/ New form factors for AI. Beyond the iphone and existing modalities, how can we reimagine how intelligence will be distributed? Could there be more diverse hardware in the home, personalized existing devices, and multimodal (visual, voice) interfaces? @eraworlds @monogram_ai 2/ AI is still not a tastemaker. We have to teach it to understand our taste and preferences before trusting its recommendations IRL (i.e. shopping, travel planning, social activities). Similarly, AI is flattening creative choices like design (many AI-generated websites and apps look similar). There's a notable gap in teaching systems to create novel (and also consistent) designs @buildyourcorner @trymoda @OdessiaTravel 3/ Leveraging intelligence to know ourselves more deeply - if we allow AI to ingest our entire life context, how can we better reflect and understand ourselves? User representations move beyond clicks, purchases, demographics, and cohorts but into nuanced beliefs, motivations, and stories. @mother__tech 4/ Big idea categories: healthcare, personal productivity @townai @extradotemail , family life @LizaGurtin , entertainment, trip planning, personal software @wabi, shopping, education. Notably, fintech was missing. I'd be interested to see more founders building in personal financial management ty @fawzitani @kirstenagreen @eurie_kim for the spotlight on consumer AI!

We’re still absurdly early on the AI interface. The most valuable AI companies of the next decade may not look anything like ChatGPT. Dream outside of the chat. @nickaturley @kirstenagreen

Had an awesome time at Humans in the Loop today! Congrats @jgreze on the killer pitch and a huge thank you to @kirstenagreen and the entire @ForerunnerVC team for hosting such a great event! Lots of great companies on display!

Awesome day at Humans in the Loop today! Kudos to the @ForerunnerVC team for a stellar event, and to @TownAI CEO @jgreze for kicking off the showcases.

“Rizz is the only moat.” @clairevo on human moats in an AI world, in convo with @eurie_kim at Humans in the Loop

Odessia turns 14 hrs of travel planning into 3 mins. Chill vibes for travelers, chill vibes for @FDavidsonT onstage at Humans in the Loop. Odessia.com

Next up: @getcasa on the stage at Humans in the Loop! If you’re a homeowner in the Bay Area or west side of LA and not using Casa yet, you’re doing it the hard way. 🔨

Really excited to be talking at Humans in the Loop next week! Awesome conference and line up! Thanks @kirstenagreen !

Every single company in the first round of showcases at Humans in the Loop were 🔥 🔥 🔥. Downloading all right now. Now up, @nickaturley and @kirstenagreen!

@doug_las_luke and I are at @ForerunnerVC Humans In The Loop 2026. The atmosphere is electric and we just heard from @nickaturley who discussed the white space in AI consumer. Excited for the second half!

@clairevo appreciation moment at Humans In The Loop 😍

“What i’d love to see more of is people and companies having an opinion and guidance on what to do with AI beyond just a chat feature.” @nickaturley @OpenAI @ForerunnerVC Humans in the Loop ➰

I’m at Humans in the Loop hosted by @ForerunnerVC , and I can already feel the energy in the room is boomin! Founders, investors, people who just love understanding human behavior. Excited to see what these startups have for us today.