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Grade 11 entrepreneur tackles the perils and possibilities of AI with new startup, LetterLabsAI

August 21, 2024

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Major companies aren’t the only ones jumping on the artificial intelligence bandwagon. Local high schooler Dean Parsons is launching an AI business of his own, and he says we can expect many of his generation to do the same. Parsons, a grade 11 student at Colonel By Secondary School, has long had a passion for technology and software. He starting coding his own video games in middle school using the free programming language Scratch, eventually moving on to game engine Unity and learning C#. “C# is decently close to the languages I use now, so it transferred really well,” he told OBJ in an interview on Monday. “From there, from these communities, I learned about software. I learned that video games are for entertainment, but I realized that the software I make can be for entertainment or to help people, and that seemed to be a much more rewarding thing to get into.” Most recently, for Parsons and his peers, artificial intelligence has emerged as a new, and potentially valuable, frontier. “I’ve made a lot of friends in the (software) space and a lot of them are always saying, listen, if you want to get into SaaS (software as a service), what you really have to do is get into AI,” he said. “It’s a huge thing. The wave is now and you might as well get in on it now. I started learning from there.” An extensive job search last summer led him to come up with the idea for his first AI business, LetterLabsAI, which he’s since launched with the help of Invest Ottawa’s Summer Company Program, which provides mentorship and grants for entrepreneurs in their teens and twenties. “I realized that the cover letter was kind of the hardest part for me personally,” he said of applying for jobs. “The cover letter actually has some personality to it. So I thought, maybe AI could help.” The platform allows job seekers to upload a PDF of their cover letter, which is then analyzed by AI on structure, grammar, and other strengths and weaknesses. The app then returns a handful of feedback points for each category, so users can learn more about potential issues and how to fix them. Users can then make the changes themselves, or ask AI to do it for them. Parsons said the result is a higher-quality cover letter that stands out to recruiters, while retaining the user’s voice. It’s a unique approach compared to the AI programs already available to job seekers, like cover letter generators, and one Parsons believes better utilizes the strengths of ChatGPT. “AI is really good at understanding and explaining, but it’s really bad at producing,” he said. “When you ask it to write something, it’s very robotic and emotionless because it’s a robot. That’s where I realized maybe writing the cover letter isn’t what I needed from it. I needed someone to go over the cover letter, like an audit.” It’s a concept that received support from his mentor at Invest Ottawa, who encouraged and helped streamline the idea and how to turn it into a business. An early version of the program is already online, but Parsons said he’s in the middle of creating a new version with updated user interface, new features, and some premium elements that users can pay to unlock. Parsons will also be receiving a grant to support the project, which he said will go toward covering the costs of running the program, as well as targeted advertising and other marketing efforts.

Next generation honing in on AI

Artificial intelligence and ChatGPT has really opened up the field for tech-minded teens, said Parsons. “Everybody’s always talking about their next AI ideas, because it’s very, very simple,” he said. “So many big companies are leaning towards adding AI and it’s just really taking over the software space. A lot of features you used to have to spend a ton of time coding. Now you can just tell AI what you want it to do and it’ll handle it in the back end.” While the importance of AI as a tool for the next tech generation has become undeniable, Parsons said there is still apprehension from some in his age group hoping to pursue a career in tech. “It’s really split into two groups,” he said. “There’s the people who like it and the people who are scared.” On the one hand, AI lowers the barriers for entry, simplifying the process and making it easier to afford making software. That means more young people see opportunities to create their own unique AI businesses and find success as startup founders. But Parsons said that accessibility could be a double-edged sword. “People are worried that things will get very, very saturated. With AI, you can make an app in three, four hours because ChatGPT is pretty decent at coding,” he said. “I am kind of in the group that is a little bit scared of AI because of how simple it is to make anything in tech. People are a little bit scared that they will start losing their jobs because any app that you make, someone else can always build better – someone with less experience, less knowledge, they can always build it better with these AI tools.” Still, Parsons can see himself finding new ways to utilize AI in the future. He said he plans to study either software or computer science in university, before going the startup route. “I’m very interested in machine learning and how it can be used to help,” he said. Continuing down the educational path by providing AI tools to students is one option, but Parsons said he could also see himself creating programs that help address challenges in health care. “My dad is a doctor, so I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the issues they have at the hospital,” he said. “I want to address a problem that genuinely does exist and make a tool that will actually help. Because, of course, while I do want to make money off of it to live, I want to make a tool that will help people.”