[murukesh_s]

As a person who is building something similar, I do know this is certainly possible with today's technology. And most probably not a scam. The team is the same team behind noflojs.org, so they do have some credibility.

But there is a misconception about Artificial Intelligence in general and its kind of true that the term is being overused. Putting couple of If/Else statement nowadays or using a Machine Learning library (Say, to find a good colour contrast - http://harthur.github.io/brain/), developers claim they are using machine intelligence and the general public might get a notion that they are doing some high-end research, while in principle they might be using one or two generally available library that any developer can use with 5-10 minutes of learning.. They really do not need to be AI experts.

[murukesh_s]

By looking at thegrid.io's claimed features, I do not see anything impossible stated there. Like said by others, it's classic AI marketing by (over)using the term AI..

But the idea is brilliant though. What they are using behind the scenes are probably few algorithms to detect faces, adjust color contrast and let the user choose from a couple of fluid layout templates (formal, casual etc). The template then further adjusts itself based on the content that is provided. All they claim is automatically crop the images, find out color contrasts and adjust the typography to maximize legibility, automatically add an ecommerce widget if they see a price info etc. All of these are certainly possible and doable, even with 5-6 year old tech. Any YC level startup can do a basic, minimal version of the stated features in few months.. But the idea is huge.

Do we have any product today for a non-developer/non-technical person to build a personalized, static website without going through all the hassles? Even WYSIWYG website generators like Wix.com or wordpress/other CMS can be too much effort for a non-technical person. All they need is a randomized and personalized website where they can throw their content at and will automagically appear polished and most importantly unique, without them going through all the settings. The advantages are endless, like the themes can auto update when the industry trends change as the user never manages the design elements directly.

The author probably mistook the product as a dynamic application generator and not a static website generator, which is certainly doesn't look feasible until we have really intelligent machines..

[zapt02]

You are right on the money when it comes to how this works. They will deliver, but it will be this, not what the blog author claims they should deliver.

[ploxiln]

Did you watch the video?

"a template isn't for you. A facebook page isn't for you." ... "you could build one yourself, but designing, developing, dragging and dropping, these are all full time jobs." ... "Wouldn't it be better if websites just made themselves?" "Now they do. It's called The Grid. No templates, no coding" ... and the kicker ...

"Just tell The Grid what you want and it uses artificial intelligence to build a tailor-made home for your content."

"And tell The Grid what you want to do. Looking for more customers, more followers, higher sales, just make your selection."

The point is that the people who really understand what some silly automated website engine could do wouldn't be interested in it (they can actually make their own website as they like) and people who fund this thing don't have any idea how limited it will be, given this super slick video, which has smoothly animated layout evolution on well composed and lit three dimensional planes, and stuff like an old image of a girl playing being analyzed, points found, objects identified and then titled "Childhood", which suggests to people that The Grid will literally do that.

Of course we understand that's figurative, it won't really do any of those things... but that doesn't excuse the success of its false marketing with the wider population.

[azeirah]

"Just tell The Grid what you want and it uses artificial intelligence to build a tailor-made home for your content."

"And tell The Grid what you want to do. Looking for more customers, more followers, higher sales, just make your selection."

I suspect that is exactly what the grid will do. It will know a few heuristics, enough to make a site feel "personal" as in, it's not the exact template like 20000 other sites, but you can most of the time easily spot a "the grid" website.

Then again, if they can even pull that off, that's great, not at all stupid.

[xanthor]

Curious to hear how NoFlo imparts any amount of credibility to the team.

[vonklaus]

It was a kickstarter proj they delivered on. Don't know anything about them, and only little anout this project. However, blindly, I would def. rather back someone who has delivered a project over one who hasn't.

[xanthor]

You should check it out and decide for yourself. I have no context to comment on the team's actual technical competence, but it has become clear to me that their M.O. is talking big and delivering fluff.