This AI assistant bought me whey protein and booked a cabin for my birthday

Instinct, an invitation-only AI assistant that operates via text messages, has performed tasks for a Business Insider reporter including booking a cabin, ordering whey protein from Costco, faxing a document to a bank, and canceling subscriptions. The company is raising $250 million at a $2.5 billion valuation, according to The Wall Street Journal, and is founded by 23-year-old Noah Shinn, a Northeastern University dropout and former Sierra employee. The service highlights the rise of 'agentic AI' but raises privacy concerns as it requires access to users' email, calendar, and other accounts, and its terms allow training on user data.

Here's everything that Instinct — an invitation-only AI assistant going viral among Silicon Valley tech types — has done for me over the past few days: • Booked a cabin for my birthday and made a dinner reservation. • Ordered whey protein from Costco. • Faxed faxed an obscure document to my bank so I could get a late-fee refund. • Checked whether a new dentist was in-network and made an appointment. • Dealt with a human customer service representative at my insurance company. • Canceled several recurring subscriptions I'd forgotten about. • Responded to my emails. Honestly, this service is nuts. And sure, AI tools like OpenClaw, Codex https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-codex-chatgpt-app-releases-gpt-5-6-models-2026-7 , and Claude Code https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-claude-code-ai-engineering-loneliness-fiona-fung can already do some of these things. But what makes Instinct different is that it lives in your text messages. There's nothing to set up, and no technical fiddling. You send it a text, and it gets to work. VCs see the magic, too. The WSJ reported https://l.businessinsider.com/s/c/fBhijEjqd6Qz7mF 6pGUaH9jMFwtPSW78J5 1KFIGBdVtBwulDYsuT5A9zxrkcnEeiNutt27VaUztmu xxGSmi7OylX3nEZP9zV7KUPpuvtqeZjrEw6j4GQLLWYl2X4jHjnL1RvT0YtZ8ymcgOq1XhxGiDvlcsiZ0hmJhkZWac7P M3hUK59F2KfnJ2Zj-jdHhTtUDU9esZBEeC-HSMr1PCqMzaZMjqG3kozxi9bc0VNDrJPxFKPyR9gmpyIXoVa3KO2MbsSdFAe33ScqLinclp0UqO5IAxYhp0EDrDyUs9FB5i7WCI69rgHp87bkcOAFIxispfwAUzNMldRPNZuywYp0Twwh1SLr4vO59QCY6bVnZmZYtbu1Nz7d UjGQT15f4ihFObAZHlVJWo1mJP6KK9D7qgx4096WzJazZ-C8VHPCwv2u6uBTlw31eMOp9CoIF6WNlmYoBsjFwIu7v2zi0WP3aPigWZPLHsj0dkZ8u HgnM44hfGn56wzYzzZvnCg/88Cj1Ti5kjgwofl17oaY2nkgIjD oXwx/24 that Instinct is raising $250 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Its founder, Noah Shinn, is a 23-year-old Northeastern University dropout and an early employee at AI company Sierra. Shinn did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Instinct is part of Silicon Valley's next big bet: that AI should stop telling us how to do things and just start doing them for us, something that the industry calls "agentic AI." My colleague Hugh Langley reported https://l.businessinsider.com/a/sc/uiEs2MOUL2AaZF8P5GL6HoB99cSy KQGmJdclnUe1J9lakX2a1DGRFJpAbLkIu788zxbQfGmRUwH7q3C-pxSOtolVpkjh06LUDA7h6tWmvxUN- -1wQLxBL6FdvYu4ubeKeuzqYgv6nyOW6IrUFO2JqGt1u ZzBkvAKefAv5MipcpgQeKVawL6afyaRP9j204PxdbDuRS1lSWds9Q7GnRTxCYtW3UndV081iCezYXA6uV3nAs3AG8L4kAu4IYN8LA6gb0OKXBG2yB59kXPpZ4OSFAwHGQ8WtLyyVytj bZm3JdmM4r iIl4oGEP-zyOLSmvpV3wIivs6Rd7F2dWQwXOXOEUtNMxAf1HSXbLkVEsJYlEl6VUH6w6k1sZUkGDjJR2PUjLRKonLN Rzl4W8I8ajJ3k5djzjmGolu-9FrY kMiRgYhDw24VJr-BO0T6Ec-ARn7NgOk-rnGA2E bv91KS3jEQRsrB3y6kQuUYzJhRFnuAFP0NmSfOCJPbVw/y6Sf18TvqZ 0XxOSZTBV-sstzKhVpXJX/24 that Meta is testing something similar called Hatch. There is, naturally, a catch. An assistant cannot run your life without gaining access to a lot of it. The more hooks that you let Instinct sink into your digital life by connecting it to your email, calendar, and anything else that requires you to log in, the more useful it is. Its terms of service also allow it to train its models on user data. Shinn did not respond to multiple requests for comment. So here's the part where I should tell you to tread with caution. Instead, I'm just going to leave you with an invitation https://l.businessinsider.com/s/c/QwgMHxxeHn3kGfK1ghGqtHOBYdM5DPOLEUiEeHTAlQgN4pPynJuiOejJyqc8fqpQj3t kkZHfefmLotc26kLjMaX2l71z0jbIzTDpIVlfZoQegFY8Odh2I15H8DyF1AuJXJi27gDRE nFpL-olV6nBHVvwTCwku6MDP--CXe8TeLWnudCy5WLmAMf1if6EaBfrgauCU4wxE wtuO9uIs5l6nFZDKY0gzj7HAVpagc6 z4hTLf0mhxkBzpSThrKptg520cJHutxQt2m4ddW9mncjokTmOwtryheVs4iXu coLHzVc8KE4ld7AVRUO4K4LUYay2GF0tr52wwWdq4FRmy4juxYm1tWnAffFseiQFk2di03PnQL73BkWV bd7galWxYLarhXtGQxAQb41mj2CeH3uskC25LER5q0rmVWEyHaYlQ4u7umEMwd2s69SDG79ymkW5lPaVPC-A/c4lBGSLODNciQeiyBckd7k2ri2l8I io/24 to sign up. Write to me https://l.businessinsider.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection 0e7e6a6776677a4e67607d676a6b7c206d6163 and tell me the craziest thing you tried. Have a tip? Contact Pranav Dixit via email at pranavdixit@protonmail.com or Signal at 1-408-905-9124 . Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely .