A metaphorical search engine that encourages creativity

Yossarian uses lateral connections made by its AI to help encourage creativity in its users

Metaphorical search engine Yossarian uses lateral connections made by its artificial intelligence (AI) to help encourage creativity in its users. The algorithm can be set to search for different levels of metaphor that range from “literal” to “serendipitous.” The company believes its metaphorical machine-learning searches help people escape the ubiquitous filter bubble contained within traditional search engines. 

Professionals in all industries spend many hours searching and brainstorming for inspiration, and Yossarian can provide new angles from which to approach an idea. One hospital emergency department reduced its handoff errors by more than 65 percent thanks to Yossarian’s analogy of a pit stop crew.

The strength of AI is its capacity to perform learned searches at rates humans can never attain. So for businesses and individuals reliant on everyday creativity, a variety of suggestions beyond their range of experience can be particularly helpful in kick starting new approaches. 

Yossarian is part of the Machine Intelligence Garage start-up cohort at Digital Catapult.

Selected for the Createch 2019 Ones to Watch, produced by the Creative Industries Council with the support of Digital Catapult, London & Partners and Springwise.