Meet Justin Irabor, the creator of Kainene vos Savant, a super-intelligent chatbot that competes with ChatGPT. He built his chatbot while studying at the International University of Applied Sciences in Germany and worked on the side.
He quickly discovered how difficult it was to balance study and work. Justin was studying for his master’s degree online when he realized he needed a study companion to make his academic life easier.
However, his study partner’s schedule did not work out for him because they both had competing deadlines.
“My master’s program is online, and the challenge with that is that you need a study partner, otherwise you’re never quite sure how much of the study material you’ve consumed,” he told How We Made It In Africa.
“This was quite challenging because combining daily activities with school meant you have to synchronize with a lot of people. Sometimes I’m at work and my study partner is also at work. It created conflicting timelines.”
As a result, in 2022, he began experimenting with Artificial Intelligence (AI). He built two chatbots and a third that served as his study buddy. His success story was later published on social media, piqued people’s interest.
He bought an open AI model and educated it using his textbooks to serve as a study buddy and tutor to help him understand specific aspects of his academic work.
“I created Kainene vos Savant when I needed a study partner. I fed her my materials, asking her to explain parts of my textbooks that I didn’t quite get. It was an early model at this point, and while it wasn’t great, it was adequate and did the job,” he told How We Made It In Africa.
According to Justin, he gave his AI Chatbot a female name because he wanted to depict women as intelligent peers with high IQs. In his view, AI female assistants can do more than perform basic things like scheduling emails or turning on your phone, citing Alexa and Siri.
“However, the intelligent assistants are mostly male, like IBM’s Watson, a skilled chess player who helps with surgical procedures,” he noted. “This allowed me to flip the narrative because Kainene is your intellectual peer.”
“You wouldn’t ask her to send an email on your behalf. She is someone who, in some circumstances, is likely intellectually superior,” he continued. “I did some research in terms of pure IQ and found Marilyn vos Savant. I liked Vos Savant and picked that as the last name for my AI chatbot, and Kainene is a name I have loved for a very long time. Besides that, AI is within the spelling of Kainene. It’s fitting.”
Kainene now has thousands of Nigerian Telegram users who rely on it for everyday duties and timely information. Users are even comparing Kainene vos Savant to ChatGPT since it is so relatable and reduces their workload.
Though access is currently limited to Nigerians, Justin is working to expand access to users outside of Nigeria.
