New Mac app wants to record everything you do so you can rewind it later

Yesterday, a company called Rewind AI announced a software product of the same name for Macs with Apple Silicon that reportedly keeps a highly compressed record of everything you do locally on your Mac, searchable and allows you to “rewind”time to view it. Later. If you’ve forgotten something you’ve “seen, said or heard”, Rewind wants to help you find it easily.

Rewind AI claims that its product stores all recording data locally on your computer and does not require cloud integration. Among its promises, Rewind will reportedly let you rewind Zoom meetings and extract information from them in a searchable form.

In the video demo on Rewind.AI, the app opens when the user presses Command+Shift+Space. The search bar prompts you to enter “everything you have seen, said or heard”. It also shows a timeline at the bottom of the screen that represents previous activities in apps.

After searching for “tps reports”, the video displays a grid view every time Rewind encounters the phrase “tps reports”as audio or text in any app, including Zoom chats, text messages, emails, Slack conversations, and Word docs. It describes filtering the results by application and the ability to copy and paste from those past instances if needed.

Rewind AI, founded by Dan Siroker and Brett Beychek, consists of a small remote team located in different cities in the United States. Parts of the company had previously created Scribe, the predecessor to Rewind, which received some press attention in 2021. In an introductory blog post, Rewind AI co-founder Dan Siroker writes, “What if we could use technology to increase our memory in the same way a hearing aid can improve our hearing?”

How it works?

Rewind AI provides few details about the app’s internal technology, but describes “incredible compression”that can reportedly compress recording data up to 3,750 times “without significant quality loss”, giving an example of 10.5 GB of data compressed to just 2.8 MB. Rewind claims that even on a small hard drive “you can store years of records”- certainly a reckless claim.

The Rewind website also describes using OCR to capture text content and automatic speech recognition to automatically transcribe everything you said or heard, including in meetings, so you “never have to worry about losing that content again.”

(If Rewind converts everything it sees and hears to plain text, that could explain the massive amount of compression. The demo didn’t show live video or audio playback, for example, just static screenshots with highlighted text. We asked Rewind AI to do this. this point and update the article if we get a response.)

Rewind AI also says that Apple Silicon Macs with M1 and M2 chips are key to making the product run “virtually invisibly”using “virtually every part of the system-on-a-chip.”

Possible privacy concerns

Outlining the vision for Rewind AI in the blog post mentioned above, Siroker writes, “Our vision is to give people the perfect memory.” But commentators on Twitter and YouTube have already begun pointing out scenarios in which “perfect memory”could backfire.

For example, Rewind could expose its users to potential abuse by powerful partners, bosses, law enforcement, or repressive governments; legal issues related to the recording of confidential information; and issues with agreeing to record other people in meetings.

Rewind addresses some of these issues on its website by saying, “We store all recordings locally on your Mac. Only you have access to them.”It also says on their demo site that you will be able to pause or delete recordings at any time, and you can automatically exclude certain apps from your recorded history, including private browsing modes in browsers.

In regards to getting permission to record a meeting with other attendees, Rewind provides its own help page called “All you need to know about consent “which includes tips such as “Before you record someone, you should always ask for their consent”. The page recommends letting people know that the meeting will be recorded—perhaps in advance—and that users are complying with all local laws regarding recording conversations.

Privacy and ethical concerns aside, Andreessen Horowitz takes the technology seriously enough to lead a $10 million funding round at a $75 million valuation. The venture capital firm wrote about the reasons for investing in Rewind, presenting the product as a cure for information overload.

The Rewind product is not currently available to the public, but anyone can request “Early Access”on the Rewind website. We contacted Rewind and asked to try out the software.