A diet-related application (app) developed by two U.S. teenagers hit the jackpot with 5 million downloads in eight months after its launch. The app is gaining popularity through word of mouth among dieters as it accurately calculates calories and nutrients when taking photos of food using models such as Antropic and OpenAI.
According to the IT media TechCrunch on Monday, California AI (AI)-based calorie analysis app “Kal AI” earned 2 million dollars last month. The number of times the app was downloaded surpassed 5 million times in just eight months since its launch. The app also gained popularity with a 4.8 rating and 66,000 reviews on Apple’s app store. Google Play also received high responses with 75,000 reviews and 4.8 ratings.
The app started to gain popularity through major social networking services (SNS) such as TikTok. Many people are posting positive comments such as “an essential app for women,” “a hope for a dieter,” “it allows them to become beautiful both on the outside and inside,” “an app that a woman should download right away,” “I recommend a really useful app,” and “why she should run to the app store right now.”
In addition, it has drawn much attention when it was revealed that the management who developed the app and founded the company is a teenager. CEO Jack Yadegari and Chief Technology Officer Henry LangMac are 18-year-old teenagers who recently graduated from high school. The app started with the idea of a teenager. “I came up with this app while going to the gym to look good to the opposite sex,” Yadegari said.
Cal AI uses AI-based image recognition technology to calculate calories and nutrients based on food photos. The difference from other caloric calculation apps is that they use models such as Antropic and OpenAI to increase accuracy. It is said to have learned GitHub’s open-source food calorie and image database. “We learned that various models show better results for multiple foods,” Yadegari said. Yadegari and LangMac CTO solved technical problems such as recognizing ingredients on wrappers and identifying food on mixed bowls.
Eight employees are working at Cal AI, including Jake Castillo (28), COO, Blake Anderson, another co-founder, and developers, designers, and social media managers. TechCrunch said, “Many developers rate this app as having ‘90% accuracy,” adding, “It is an app that is useful enough for dieters.”
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
