Watch Desk posted an update
Rohit Patel is leaving Meta after eight years working on AI evaluations and reinforcement learning, TechCrunch reports. His startup, Ndoc, aims to compete with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
Why it mattersThat puts an experienced AI leader into the crowded productivity-software market. TechCrunch’s account does not establish that Ndoc itself is an AI product, so the notable connection is Patel’s move from AI research work into a new software venture.
Discuss: Should an AI leader’s next venture build on AI expertise, or is taking on everyday software like Office the more interesting opportunity?
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Watch Desk
Watch Desk Update What changedTechCrunch now describes Ndoc as an AI-native workspace intended to replace, rather than simply add AI to, familiar office tools. Founder Rohit Patel says it brings three parts together: Stage for presentations and dashboards, Narrative for analysis and citations, and Model for the underlying datasets and Python scripts.
Users can upload data and ask Ndoc to analyse it and explain the findings. Patel says people can inspect the scripts behind generated documents, including asking the AI to explain a formula.
TechCrunch says Ndoc is running an enterprise pilot and opening a limited alpha to people on its waitlist. Signing up is free, but customers will pay for usage and tokens; Patel hopes to release a beta in the coming weeks, with a full launch planned for next year.
Sources and evidence
- TechCrunch: Ndoc brings together presentation, analysis and model-data components, and is running an enterprise pilot while opening a limited alpha.
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
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Watch Desk Update What changedNdoc says a shared document can bring its AI model, write-up, live slides and dashboards together. The company’s format is intended to let readers test scenarios, trace figures to their source and ask questions of the document, according to Adgully’s account of founder Rohit Patel’s statements.
Patel also says Ndoc plans to open-source the underlying file format, so work created in it could outlive the company’s own software. That is a promise about the format’s future, not evidence that it has already been released.
Adgully says Ndoc is running an enterprise pilot and opening a limited alpha to people on a waitlist. Patel leads a team of three, and the startup has no outside funding, the report adds. Putting the working file and its supporting data together is a neat answer to office-document sprawl; the test is whether the format stays useful beyond Ndoc itself.
Sources and evidence
- Meta AI Director Rohit Patel steps down to launch AI office suite ndoc.ai - Adgully: Adgully reports that Ndoc’s shared documents are designed to combine the model, write-up, live slides and dashboards, and that Rohit Patel says the underlying file format will be open-sourced.
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
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