Capable or private. Now both.

We are Mike and Asha, the two people behind Arx. We use AI every day. It helps. That was never the problem.

The problem was the stuff we did not type in.

What we held back

Mike used AI mostly to write code. For code, he didn't mind much. But some things gave him what he calls "this cringe feeling and this big hesitation."

Our own ideas were one. When you type into an AI on the web, it goes to a company. You don't see where it is kept, or who can read it. Could that company see our plans and build them first?

Then there were the calls. We would talk for an hour to plan the company, and record it. AI could sum up those calls for us. We still felt "this intense cringe" about handing them over.

Then health. Mike had a health problem and wanted AI to look at his test results with him. He did not do it.

Then other people's data. AI could help us write to the people who buy from us, or keep track of their orders. But their names and homes are not ours to hand to a company. "It's not right," Mike said, "to send other people's data that they're trusting us with."

So we did one of two things. We used the AI and felt uneasy. Or we did the work by hand and went without.

Capable or private

For a long time, there was one way out: run the AI on your own machine. Then your words stay with you.

But that AI was not smart enough. It was private, but it could not do the job. You had to pick. Capable, or private.

That has changed. Small AI you can run at home has got much better, fast. It can now do real tasks, not just chat. And since it runs on a box you own, you know where your data goes. You don't have to pick.

We have to be honest about one thing. For writing code, the big AI on the web is still better. Mike still uses it for that. But for a lot of the work you would want to keep private, the AI at home is good enough now.

We built it for us first

Asha was a transplant surgeon before he moved into AI. We started out making AI for medical work. The best way to show a doctor that the data stays private is to show them the box it goes to. So we made videos of us using AI on a box you can see, not in a big data center.

Asha went further than Mike. He bought machines to run AI at home more than once. The first ones were cheap and not good. He kept going until he found the one we now put in The Box. He uses it all the time. As he puts it: "If you are always concerned with privacy, the AI gets nerfed." In other words, if you can't give it your real work, it can't do much for you.

Mike set it up too. And here is the part that surprised us. Even with years of using AI, he held back. Each new job meant work: what data would it need, and how would he hook it in? "If it's going to take 2 hours," he said, "that's 2 hours away from developing." So most of the time, he used the AI on the web. Or none at all.

If it was a wall for us, it is a wall for most people. So we asked: do other people want this too?

Then people told us why

We have now talked to a lot of people who want a Box. Most are not AI pros. They are people who help clients, doctors and nurses, a reporter, people who run small shops, artists, families. They told us five things, over and over.

• It's other people's data. Clients, patients, students, sources. They can't hand it to a company, and they don't want to.
• They want to own it. One person did not want to build on an AI "that he can never own."
• They are tired of paying each month. They would rather pay once.
• Setting it up is a wall. "When you say plug and play," one asked, "that means I don't have to think about how it works?"
• It's for life, not just work. Home, kids, school, a family AI that grows with them.

Most of the people who have bought a Box so far work with other people's data. And most told us the same thing: they want to own their AI, not rent it.

What we want

On one call, someone asked what we are trying to build. Our answer was to "get back to a time where you owned stuff and that stuff provided value to your life."

That is The Box. It is AI that is good at real work, set up for you, and on a box in your home. You pay for it once. It is yours.

We are two people and a small team. When you call, you get us.

If this sounds like you

We build boxes in groups. When a group is open, you can buy one on our pricing page. When it is sold out, join the waitlist. We will tell you when the next one opens.

See pricing
Why private means a box on your desk
What owning your AI means
The case for paying once
See how setup works