How MySALT AI Is Restoring Trust in AI and Reviving Personal Connections

The Brief

• MySALT AI, a new platform developed by David Baird and Eric Lightheart, aims to build trust between users and artificial intelligence.
• The creators are offering free, limited-time access to their platform, which acts as a personal AI "vault" for user information, designed to protect privacy.
• MySALT AI allows users to develop ideas into software, offering a unique, personalized AI experience with avatars and "job" capabilities without selling user data.

(FOX 2) - The artificial intelligence shift is here, ready or not.

We're already using AI in so many ways – from Siri on iPhones to Gemini on Androids – and even on your social media algorithms, but tapping into the full capabilities of what AI can do for you is intimidating and risky.

The inventors of MySALT AI say their platform is different. So different, in fact, they're giving us free access. David Baird and Eric Lightheart developed MySALT AI to bridge an important trust gap between humans and the machines we're programming.

"It’s building a vault of your own information with an AI that can do something with it," Baird said.

The backstory

Baird was changing careers from a musician to business consultant and was using AI to help in the transition.

"I'm able to paint with technology the way I can build a song. So when you are in the studio you don’t know what the song is going to sound like in the end; you just know what works, and what sounds go together," he said.

Realizing the potential he already had, he started using AI to create a new and more personal form of artificial intelligence.

"The idea is to build out this marketplace of abilities and jobs rather than work with a ton of AI agents that are out there," he said.

That led him to start MySALT AI. SALT is an acronym that stands for Social, Artificial, Life, and Technology. As he started building the software, he reached out to his friend, scientist Eric Lightheart.

"He showed me how AI could change people’s lives," Lightheart said.

Together, the two men realized something holding most people back from embracing AI was a human element.

"There is actually a growing trust gap that’s happened with AI," Baird said.

The trust is whether the information you share with a non-human device will belong to you.

"We don’t sell your information so you can get more annoying ads and get you to buy stuff you don’t want to buy," Lightheart said.

What they're saying

MySALT AI is designed to grow with you and your ideas. Think of it like an employee that doesn’t get tired and can work at your pace and timeline.

"Just one of many things that MySALT can do, you have AI come in and say you are a working mother you give it an idea and it starts to code for you. In real time it can build you a prototype and all you had to do was learn the proper language (of) how to talk to AI," Lightheart said.

The personal AIs handle everyday tasks online – like posting content, managing calendars, shopping, sending emails, and even making connections. But unlike corporate-centri AIs, MySALT gives each user their own AI digitally connected to them.

"You sign up, you choose your avatar, you choose a name and then, even in a basic account, you are going to have jobs or abilities that will be attached to your AI," Baird said.

The company got a small business grant and are now able to offer free access to the platform - for a limited time.

"Just normal sign up stuff the reason we ask for this information is this is what is going to help you get a personal experience," Baird said.

"Innovation is supposed to be designed to empower a number of Detroiters. Well, if you have an idea and you want to turn that idea into software, so you have to go to a software company and it's $100,000 dollars to develop your idea, there is little chance you will become an entrepreneur," Baird said.

The free sign-up is for a limited time only. To get on the waitlist, go to mysalt.ai.