Toskar, explained simply
Your own AI, that keeps your secrets
You've heard about AI assistants that read, write, and answer questions. Toskar is one of those, except it lives on a small computer that you own, in your office or your home. What you tell it stays with you.
The problem
Where do your words go?
When you type into ChatGPT or similar services, your words travel over the internet to a company's computers. They're answered there, and often kept there.
For a recipe, that's fine. But a patient's history, a client's divorce, your company's finances, or your family's affairs are not things most people want sitting on someone else's computers, under someone else's rules.
And those services charge every person, every month, for as long as you use them.
The idea
Toskar keeps the AI at home
Think of it as hiring a very well-read assistant who works only in your office, never takes papers home, and doesn't talk to anyone else.
What you tell it stays with you
Your questions, your documents, and its answers are worked out on your own computer. They aren't sent to an AI company to be stored, read, or used to train its next AI.
You pay once, not every month
You buy the computer once. There's no monthly bill for each person who uses it, however many questions they ask.
Everyone can have their own
Each person in your office or home gets their own sign-in. Their conversations are theirs alone, and you decide who can change the settings.
It keeps working when the internet doesn't
The AI itself runs on the computer, so it answers even when the internet is down. It only needs the internet to look things up on the web.
Who it's for
People who are trusted with private information
Doctors' practices, law offices, accountants, small businesses, and families: anyone who wants the help of AI without handing their information to an AI company.
Read the long ones for you
Hand it a 30-page contract, an insurer's letter, or a report, and ask for the five things that matter, with where it found them.
Write the first draft
Letters, emails, referral notes, instructions for staff or patients. You tell it what you want, then edit instead of starting from a blank page.
Answer from your own papers
Point it at your policies, forms, and past letters, and ask questions in plain words. It shows which document each answer came from.
Explain it in plain words
Paste something full of jargon and ask, "What does this mean, simply?" It's patient, and it doesn't mind being asked twice.
What you need
Three steps
Step 1
A small computer for the office
A Mac mini is a good choice: it's quiet, small, and uses little power. What matters most is its memory, because the AI lives in it. Ask for at least 32 GB, and more if you can. It sits on a shelf and stays on, like a printer.
Step 2
Install Toskar
Get Toskar Pro from the Mac App Store. Try it free for 14 days, then it's $24.99, once. It suggests an AI that fits your computer and installs it with one click. Or have Yeix, the people who make Toskar, do all of this for you.
Step 3
Use it from anywhere in the office
Open it on that computer, from the other computers in your office, or with the Toskar app on your phone or tablet. To reach it from home or on the road too, there's an optional plan for $4.99 a month.
Questions
- Is it as smart as ChatGPT?
- Not on the very hardest questions. The AIs that fit on a small computer are smaller than the ones big companies run in their data centers. For everyday work, such as reading, summarizing, explaining, and drafting, they do very well. Toskar suggests the best one your computer can run.
- Does anything ever leave my computer?
- Only when a question needs something from the internet, such as today's news. Then Toskar searches the web, and only the search words go out, never your documents. A list in Settings, "What left this computer", shows every time. You can turn web searches off.
- Does this make my practice compliant with HIPAA or other privacy rules?
- No software does that on its own. Keeping patient or client information on a computer in your own office means it isn't sent to an AI company, which removes a big risk. Compliance also depends on how the computer is secured and who can use it, so talk to whoever handles your compliance. Yeix can help set it up carefully.
- Can it give medical or legal advice?
- It's a reading and writing helper, not a doctor or a lawyer. It can be wrong, so check what it writes, as you would a new assistant's work. You stay the professional.
- Do I need to be good with computers?
- No. If you can use email, you can use Toskar: you type a question, or speak it, and read the answer. If you'd rather not set it up yourself, Yeix will set it up and be the people you call.
- What if I already have a computer?
- Toskar may run on it. A recent Mac or a PC with plenty of memory works. The Toskar website's home page can check what yours can run.
Rather have it done for you?
Yeix, the team behind Toskar, can choose the computer, set everything up in your office, show your staff how to use it, and look after it. Tell them a little about your office or home; they reply within one business day.