Built in the open.
For the families who asked.

In June, my son was born. I've spent the last six years building AI systems for a living, and those two facts used to feel like separate lives. They aren't anymore.

I know what this technology can do. I also know what it can cost, especially to a child whose attention is still forming. Nowa comes from sitting with that tension.

Three things landed at once.

• First: the researchers who spent forty years studying how children learn to start, focus, and follow through (Dr. Susanne Denham, Dr. Megan McClelland, Dr. Steven Kurtz, with Dr. David Mou shaping the safety framework from day one) can finally put that science into a device a six-year-old holds in one hand.
• Second: our kids will grow up alongside it whether anyone designs it for them or not. I'd rather someone designed for them. A closed system. No open internet. No ads. Sessions that end.
• Third: no parent I know is looking for another screen. They're looking for a few minutes back in the morning, and the sense that they're doing right by their kid.

Nowa is what I want in my own house before my son is three: a small creature he cares for, and grows up a little every day for it. This June, that stopped being an idea. The deadline has a face now.

Daniel Nguyen · Dad and Co-founder, Nowa