Caleb Brown

Nothing important has ever been built without irrational exuberance.

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

playing with Sora 2, testing it by creating mini ads for @BloodyLikelyHQ - rough around the edges at times and often goes off prompt, but it’s certainly impressive

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

that’s 57.222 degrees celsius

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

Summer enjoyers will be like booo! I wish it was 135 degrees today

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

the new costco guys song sucks

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

@cutiegurlk8 kinda unrelated, I’m not religious, but bought this catholic shadow box at an estate sale and think it’s really lovely ◡̈

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

@ghof01 in ur moonbeam ice cream era

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

vibe coding broke the ballmer peak

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

🚀 Meet ChatterBot v1 – my DIY Alexa-like device powered by ChatGPT.

I wanted a hands-free AI brainstorming buddy, and now that OpenAI’s API agents can search the web, real-time market research is finally possible. So I built one.

ChatterBot runs on ChatGPT-4o’s search preview model with pre-programmed steerability prompts to keep it in full tech bro mode, voiced by the fantastic ElevenLabs.

📹 Attached is a quick product demo. Prompts are short for the demo, but ChatterBot can go deep. It also has a long context window, so it remembers our whole brainstorming session.

It’s still rough, responses can take 5+ seconds, but it’s way funnier and more creative than Alexa or Google Home.

I’ll probably clean it up and open-source it on GitHub soon. For now, here’s the tech behind it:

🛠️ Hardware Stack
• @Raspberry_Pi Zero 2 W
• Waveshare 2.13" E-Ink Display
• PiSugar 3 Battery
• USB Hub, Speaker & Mic
• Custom 3D-Printed Case (+ lots of tape)

💾 Software Stack
• @OpenAI API w/ web search agent (GPT-4o-search-preview)
• Wake Word Detection: Porcupine by Picovoice AI
• Speech-to-Text: OpenAI Whisper API
• AI Voice: @elevenlabs

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

Going all-in on Claude 3.7 seems like the wrong approach, yet being religiously loyal to 3.5 seems wrong too. I'm doing the bulk of my work with 3.5 and switching to 3.7 when .5 is spinning wheels

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

@cutiegurlk8 if someone made a coin purse with my name on it I’d bite them so hard

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

@willnitze that would certainly be one way to differentiate from their competitors

[•ᴗ-.com @evadentz]

me setting up face ID

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

I don’t have a grand finale for this thread, just taking a stroll down digital memory lane.

It feels almost quaint in 2025. These days, most folks are at least somewhat more aware of digital privacy...

We just wait to hear which company we trusted got hacked this time.

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

I feel about startups the way some do about sports. Obsessed with the founders, tech, marketing, failures, successes.

My favorite era? Web 2.0. Flickr, Tumblr, Digg… I love ‘em all.

Today, I randomly remembered the provocatively named Please Rob Me from 2010.

(🧵👇)

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

This was peak Web 2.0, sharing everything online felt exciting, not risky.

(Maybe I’ll write about Blippy next… iykyk 👀)

Sure, a would-be thief may need more than a check-in to rob your home, but Please Rob Me made people, and some companies, rethink digital privacy.

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

If you think it’s useful, check it out 🌙📺 → https://t.co/D8iPoENKJl

And if you’re hesitant to try AI-powered development—just do it.

I started this as an experiment because I was skeptical about these AI tools. Now? The possibilities feel endless. 🚀

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

Just launched my first iOS app, mostly as an excuse to dive into AI-powered development.

Meet NightFlow → https://t.co/D8iPoENKJl

An app for people who fall asleep with the TV on. When your sleep timer kicks in, it listens for silence and fades in nature sounds.

(Thread 🧵👇)

[Caleb Brown @calebrown]

I have no idea how many people actually need this.

Figuring out the TAM wasn’t the goal. I built it for myself and that's reward enough.

This was about exploration, not monetization.