Hark launches AI personal assistant focused on privacy
Startup Hark, founded by serial entrepreneur Brett Adcock, has released its AI personal assistant Hark Pro, which performs tasks on a user's computer. The company says its mission is building an interface for AI rather than pursuing AGI or selling user data.
Hark, a startup less than a year old founded by serial entrepreneur Brett Adcock, has publicly launched its AI personal assistant, Hark Pro. The service is free to use, with a paid subscription tier available for heavy users.
Hark Pro is built on a model trained specifically for computer use, meaning it handles tasks directly on a user's device rather than just answering questions. The company frames its mission as creating a user interface for AI, not building artificial general intelligence. Rather than a standalone app, Hark aims to become something closer to an operating system for future AI-driven computers.
How it works
The product is a full-screen experience built around a central chat window and a feed of suggested actions, alongside "panels" offering mini-dashboards on topics the user cares about. The background imagery adjusts to the user's local weather and time of day.
As with other AI assistants, users grant Hark access to parts of their digital life — email, calendar, storage, payment cards — allowing it to carry out tasks as well as answer general questions. Design lead Abidur Chowdhury, a former Apple employee, demonstrated the product handling unapproved expenses, unanswered emails, an upcoming meeting, and offering to book a flight. He also described an instance where the assistant recognized a colleague needed to renew a car registration with California's DMV and completed the process through the agency's website.
One distinctive design choice is a small window showing how the agent navigates the web — a step most assistants perform invisibly — which Chowdhury says helps build user trust. This ties into Hark's broader pitch: unlike companies such as Meta or OpenAI, it says it isn't trying to sell ads or harvest user data. Still, getting full value from the model requires users to share extensive personal information, raising cybersecurity considerations.
Software is only part of Hark's plan — the company has also promised an AI-native hardware device in 2027, though its exact form remains undisclosed.
