Man versus Machine? That's how Neuroflash Wants to Become the Technology We Love

1. When did neuroflash start?
2. Did GPT play a role back then?
3. So you existed longer than ChatGPT.
4. Why do we always only hear about ChatGPT?
5. What has changed for neuroflash in the meantime?
6. Did you benefit from the ChatGPT boom or was it more of a fright?
7. Will neuroflash make my job obsolete?
8. Do you ever have respect for this development?
9. And what's next? Where do you want to go with neuroflash?
10. We mostly talk about text generation. What else should we keep in mind in terms of AI tools?

When thinking of AI tools, ChatGPT probably comes to mind first. However, neuroflash launched its AI text generators in Fall 2022, before the hype around OpenAI's competitor. We spoke to co-founder Henrik Roth about why most people have only known neuroflash since the launch of ChatGPT, and what e-bikes have to do with our jobs. Do you ever have respect for Artificial Intelligence, Henrik? You can read that in the interview:

When did neuroflash start?

Henrik Roth: That's an interesting question. The company has been around since 2011, back then it was still a UG. The real neuroflash, as well as the GmbH, have been around since 2021.

We've also done a lot of other things before, like developing a technology that can predict what people are thinking and feeling when they read texts. This was essentially a kind of AI-supported market research. With this, you could delve into the subconscious of consumers without having to ask people themselves. These were the first consulting projects with well-known brands that we started working on in 2020 and were able to finance ourselves with.

Did GPT play a role back then?

Henrik Roth: At the time, we also tried out technologies like GPT-2 or BERT. When GPT-3 came onto the market, we integrated it directly into our software. We then tested various small prototypes on the market for a year. However, we didn't quite have the product-market fit yet. Until we launched our current AI writer on the market in March 2022 - since then, it has been going uphill sharply.

Our own technology still comes into play. We are now also increasingly integrating it back into our software to not only offer our customers the best text quality, but also to help them create content “on-brand”.

So you existed longer than ChatGPT.

Henrik Roth: In March 2022 we had around 5,000 users. By December, it was 200,000. With the hype around ChatGPT, the increase became even steeper. This way we were able to inspire over 70,000 users for our app in January alone. This is so fascinating for us: Almost everything you've been able to do with ChatGPT since December, you've been able to do with us to some extent since October 2022. Of course, we've gotten even better since then. But what is celebrated at ChatGPT, we have been doing for a few months longer.

Henrik Roth is co-founder and CMO of the Hamburg start-up neuroflash. Photo: neuroflash

Why do we always only hear about ChatGPT?

Henrik Roth: The chat interface of ChatGPT has helped guide users better and make it easier for them to get started with the tool. In addition, such an interface is more personal and everyone can do something with it. And OpenAI really went viral with it. Just because a technology is strong and the product is good doesn't mean it needs to go viral.

Also, ChatGPT is free. This is also smart of OpenAI because their models can learn more through heavy usage. But for the general writing process, ChatGPT is not very helpful. It's mainly practical for research because it provides information quickly.

What has changed for neuroflash in the meantime?

Henrik Roth: Last year we already spoke a lot with early adopters, especially start-ups. Of course, they have been dealing with AI for a long time. Now we notice that even the very big companies are introducing the topic into their organizations. We are now getting more and more inquiries from larger companies. In the past, we were still pitching.

Even schools are contacting us and want us to show what you can do with neuroflash. I was surprised by that because schools are not exactly known as early adopters. But the students will use the tools anyway, so the examination system has to adapt.

Did you benefit from the ChatGPT boom or was it more of a fright?

Henrik Roth: Quite frankly: both. It was just before Christmas and we were almost on break, but then we saw a huge rush to us. And because we use the language models from OpenAI, our supplier has essentially become a market competitor. Of course, that's an interesting dynamic. But as the saying goes, 'competition is the spice of life.' At first, there was a lot of external pressure. It's important to stay agile and adapt. But in the end, we benefit from it.

Now we just want to build on these basic technologies and believe, on balance, that this development helps us. Google, Microsoft, and Bing are also catching up. So the market is just at the beginning and that makes it so exciting. But we were unaware it would go this fast. I really only heard about ChatGPT when it was clear that it would be launched.

Will neuroflash make my job obsolete?

Henrik Roth: In the last 100 years, there have been many changes in the technology we use to write texts. But that never removed you as a human being from the process, it just changed your role. neuroflash is like an e-bike: we're the motor, you're on the bike steering, but you also have to pedal a bit. Still, you sit in the driver's seat and have a completely different feeling of life than the guy on the bike next to you, who's pedaling like crazy without a motor.

At the end of the day, we want to set up neuroflash in such a way that people love the technology. Because we strongly believe that only man and machine working together will bring the best output. Nevertheless, I also believe that people will have a major competitive disadvantage in the coming years if they do not grapple with AI.

As an example, I recently saw that a pretty standard large company is looking for a Prompt Engineer. Prompts are the commands you enter into tools like neuroflash or ChatGPT. We also have Prompt Engineers, but it's clear that we need them here. Now consumer brands are looking for Prompt Engineers as well. In the end, prompts have a big influence on how good the results are that an AI tool generates for you. But for many people, it's still hard to understand how prompts work.

At neuroflash, real people work on artificial intelligence. Our jobs will certainly change, but according to co-founder Henrik Roth, we don't need to worry. Photo: neuroflash

Do you ever have respect for this development?

Henrik Roth: For example, the GPT-technology can also program. Imagine Microsoft connecting GPT with the developer platform GitHub, which they've owned for a few years. Developers would be able to work much faster and more efficiently. I'm not afraid of that, but I think 'Wow'. This is an opportunity for us to focus on important things, to have more time, during which we don't have to work. But maybe that's a somewhat naive view. Nevertheless, there are so many areas that an AI can't cover. For example, when you're interviewing me as an editor, you're mainly dealing with new information and using your human intelligence.

And what's next? Where do you want to go with neuroflash?

Henrik Roth: Until now, our focus has been on improving the quality of German texts. GPT was trained with existing content, which is about 80 percent English. But at the moment we are repositioning ourselves away from a pure text generator. We want to become the most popular AI Content Suite in Europe, where you can generate all kinds of content. Besides text, also pictures. For this, we want to focus primarily on professional content creators, such as agencies, brands, or freelancers.

Another point is our API: We want to create many integrations, for example, to WordPress, Adobe Creative Cloud, Shopify. So you can create your texts directly where you need them. And of course, we want to grow with our team. By December, preferably to almost 60 people.

We mostly talk about text generation. What else should we keep in mind in terms of AI tools?

Henrik Roth: One thing I've found pretty cool so far is NaturalReader. With the app, you can generate voice from text. And that worked really well. You can do really exciting things with it, also in terms of podcasts. And AI text and image are also quite advanced, so video will surely come within the next two years.