When former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer told me earlier this month that she was finally ready to unveil Dazzle, the personal AI assistant that raised an $8 million seed round last December, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was copying Meta’s Muse, Instinct, and the wave of similar tools that have flooded the market over the past month.
But when Mayer finally showed me a demo, Dazzle proved they were taking a different approach. Rather than building context about you from text-heavy apps like email, calendar, or shopping history, Dazzle’s AI assistant gets all the context from a single source: your camera roll.
“I think photography is an underappreciated source of information,” Meyer says. “You’ll be amazed at what we can learn about you and how great a job we can do with your photos.”
If a picture is worth a thousand words, Meyer argues, your camera roll is worth a million words. By analyzing all the photos stored on your phone, Dazzle claims to understand your hobbies, interests, food, style preferences, and who and how you like to spend your time.
“We know if you like skiing, where your last trips were, and what your kids are into,” Meyer said.
It’s no surprise that Mayer built an assistant around photography. Her previous startup, Sunshine, launched an AI-powered photo sharing tool called Shine in 2024. Although the product was widely criticized for its outdated design, wasn’t widely used, and was eventually shut down, Mayer says it still built an “interesting IP.”
I wanted to try Dazzle, which allows users to interact through an app or text. Dazzle splits its functionality into two core experiences. For urgent tasks, you can scan recent photos to get details. For example, you can populate your calendar with an event flyer, or find a broken garage door in your camera roll to find someone to fix it.
Then mine your photo library to come up with personalized ideas for everything from holiday getaways to birthday presents.
Given that many tools can analyze photos, such as finding out where to buy a product or finding information about interesting works of art, I was much more interested in testing what Dazzle could learn from my photo history.
For example, Mayer uses Dazzle to brainstorm family outings. She said the assistant deduced that her family loved escape games by scanning her photos, then suggested several San Francisco Bay Area locations she had never heard of.
When I tested Dazzle by requesting vacation recommendations, it suggested a few Mediterranean spots, perhaps picking up past trips to Spain and Greece. But Sicily also has an impact, which surprised me since I was there 4 years ago. After some more tinkering, I realized that this has a blind spot. When I asked if I should buy roller skates for her next birthday, I didn’t remember that my daughter already knows how to roller skate.
But despite the problems, I appreciated Dazzle’s ideas for activities, including suggestions for a local pottery studio and a bioluminescent kayak tour in Tomales Bay.
I’m sure the product will improve over time, and I haven’t decided whether to continue using it, but I like that the suggestions feel more personal than what I get from an AI assistant that only knows calendars and email.
On the other hand, Mayer argues that due to security concerns with products such as Instinct and Muse, users may feel more comfortable handing over their photo libraries to AI rather than giving it access to sensitive data such as emails and messages.
She emphasized that Dazzle prioritizes privacy and will destroy any personal information flagged as sensitive by its AI.
This proliferation of new AI assistants is an exciting time for consumers. And while Dazzle is not yet as widely useful as other services, it offers a glimpse into a future where AI can do more than just perform tasks. It actually knows who you are.
If you buy through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect editorial independence.
