[JohnMakin]

This is the classic refrain product owners counter back with any time people present reasonable criticism of their AI app.

User: "This (AI product) doesn't work!"

Product Owner: "Well, humans are also bad at that."

That's not the promise of these apps in general! The whole selling point of AI is that they're vastly better - if my eyeball estimate is "pretty inaccurate" and by your own admission the app is "pretty inaccurate" then why the hell would I use your app??

From the very top of the page you linked:

> SnapCalorie is the first app where you can take a picture of any meal and get an accurate calorie count and nutrition in seconds

(emphasis mine)

[wnorris510]

I got into this space because I saw many family members struggling with weight and nutrition. One of the leading causes of death in the United States is Diabetes, largely caused by poor nutrition and lack of exercise.

I've spent the last 10 years of my life researching why this is and how I can help. What I've heard from countless users is that it takes to long to track what they're eating and learn how they can improve.

I've never tried to claim that the selling point of AI is that it's "vastly better", I've just tried to build tools to help people. The voice note feature in our app accompanied by a kitchen scale is the most accurate thing you can do to track nutrition and it actually is much faster than what existed on the market before we launched.

The photo logging feature is more accurate than what most users did before we launched and is by far the fastest way you can track, but yes, it has it's limitations, and unlike our competitors I won't pretend it's perfect. If you're eating out at dinner, and the alternative would be you didn't log the meal, it's a great option.

At the end of the day accuracy actually is not the most important thing if you really care about helping people. Education is what matters. People need to learn which foods and ingredients are the problematic ones and why. Our app accomplishes that better than any solution that existed on the market before we launched.

[paul7986]

Once Meta, Google and Apple put this in their current to future smart glasses adoption will sky rocket .. it will done automagically and then that knowledge might shock people how many calories they consume vs. the recommended daily intake. It could be made a game with you and your friends and or family or workout buddies.

Ozempic be damned for at least 1/4 on it and or considering it.

[shifto]

What is the added value of the app? Ive been using ChatGPT to track my calories for 6 months now and dropped 20kg because of it. This is mostly me just telling it everything that enters my mouth and adjust the output I deem wrong. This isn't super accurate but apparently enough to get an idea, and thus lose weight.

[wnorris510]

Our app uses LiDAR for portion and is a lot more accurate than ChatGPT, ChatGPT doesn't have access to LiDAR and is less accurate.

Our app is free to use the most accurate model, ChatGPT is paid for the most accurate model and has usage limits.

Our app plots your data on nice charts and has visuals specific to understanding your data over time visually (e.g. how has my sodium intake been changing day over day or what has my average weekly caloric intake been when deducting active calories from fitness trackers).

Our app integrates with Apple Health and soon will integrate with Android Fit so you can export your data to other apps, share with health professionals, etc.

[kevlened]

> The whole selling point of AI is that they're vastly better

Not to nitpick, but "better" isn't on a single axis. Taking a photo is a better experience than searching and keying in every component, even if the accuracy is identical.

AI tools don't even have to be "vastly" better. They could be, and often are, even worse on several axes, because they often trade quality for ease-of-use.

You may assign a lower weight to the ease-of-use axis (as engineers, we tend to), but then you're likely not the ideal customer for many of today's AI products.

[wnorris510]

^^ 100%. Accuracy, speed, weight loss efficacy. Improving on each of this is a different solution.