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Boswell

Status: Inactive (evolved into Gabriel) Era: ~2015–2023 What it was: AI-powered personal biography and life recording project

Overview

Boswell was Ted Barnett's project to build an AI system that could serve as a personal biographer — recording, organizing, and narrating a person's life story. The name references James Boswell, the 18th-century writer famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson.

The project went through multiple iterations over nearly a decade, including: - Alexa voice interface experiments - iOS app development - Integration with various AI/NLP services - Voice UI design

Evidence from Obsidian Vault

The Obsidian vault contains extensive Boswell documentation: - Boswell.md (main project page) - Boswell Tasks, Boswell QA, Boswell Voice UI - Alexa Development - Boswell - Boswell MVP 1.2, Boswell Swift App - Boswell Team Mtg - Agenda - Boswell Renaming Process (suggesting the project considered rebranding) - LifeBio and Boswell (partnership or comparison with LifeBio) - Debugging Boswell.ai (suggesting a web deployment)

Significance

Boswell was ahead of its time. The project was exploring AI-assisted life recording years before ChatGPT made conversational AI mainstream. It directly informed Gabriel — the lessons learned about what works (and doesn't) in personal AI shaped the current project's architecture and philosophy.

Open Questions

  • What were the key technical iterations?
  • Who was on the team? (References to meetings, team agendas suggest collaborators)
  • What prompted the "Renaming Process"?
  • What was the relationship with LifeBio?
  • When and why did active development stop?

See Also