The Dark Side of ChatGPT: Who Has Access to The Way You Think?

Summary

The episode is an interview about Thawra AI, a startup founded by Syrian-born brothers Hani and Saeed Shahabi. Hani describes Thawra as an ethical alternative to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other major AI platforms, built in response to concerns about privacy, corporate control, and political bias.

Technology and product

• Open-source models and hosting: The founders initially built Thawra using a pretrained open-source language model, which Hani says is currently from a Chinese company. They host it on European infrastructure, which they say helps keep users’ conversations and data away from major U.S. technology companies.
• Customization and context: Hani says they use system prompts to shape the model’s responses and a technique he calls RAG to provide context from sources that support or check its answers. The subtitles expand RAG as “resampled generation,” but the term commonly refers to retrieval-augmented generation.
• Bias and transparency: Hani argues that major AI platforms can give vague or evasive answers on politically sensitive topics. He says Thawra uses prompts and safeguards to provide more direct answers. These are his characterizations of the services and of Thawra’s approach, rather than an independent comparison in the episode.
• Features: Thawra offers text chat, voice modes, vision, image creation, and an API. Hani says organizations, including LaunchGood, use the API.
• Thawra Work: The founders are developing a product described as an alternative to Claude Cowork, with agent-style workflows. At the time of recording, it was being tested and refined with a Discord community of more than 1,000 members. The team hoped to release it around the podcast’s publication.
• Development plans: The founders want to expand agent features and eventually build their own model. Hani says the company’s small size—two people handling the work—limits how quickly it can develop.

Company background and strategy

Hani says he and his brother left technology jobs because they felt their work conflicted with their values. They first created a basic interface using open-source models, shared it with family and friends, and improved it through feedback. The project received support from the Tech for Palestine incubator. Hani says it reached about 1,000 users in its first week and 100,000 within two weeks, without paid advertising.

The founders describe Thawra—Arabic for “revolution”—as a “counter-technology”: their answer to the power and influence they believe large technology companies hold. Hani argues that Muslim communities should build broadly useful infrastructure, not only religious apps, and avoid depending on platforms that may act against their interests.

Business decisions and challenges

Hani says an Israeli company contacted the founders three times about acquiring Thawra, and they declined. The purchase price was not disclosed; the host suggests it could have exceeded a million dollars, and Hani agrees they may have given up that much. Hani says Thawra remains self-funded, with no investors, because the founders want to avoid pressure to compromise their mission.

He also identifies working closely with his brother as their biggest challenge. Hani says the intensity of running the startup strained their personal relationship, so they made a point of restoring time and care for their brotherhood.

Advice and takeaways

Hani advises aspiring technologists to start with why they want to use AI and what they hope to build, rather than pursuing it simply because it is popular. He encourages people to create useful alternatives and says mission, religious values, and personal relationships should not be sacrificed for growth or convenience.

The episode is an interview and discussion, not a product review, step-by-step guide, or technical tutorial. The host encourages viewers to try Thawra, but the episode does not provide an independent hands-on evaluation.

Main speakers and sources

• Hani Shahabi — Thawra AI co-founder and principal guest; discusses the product, its technical approach, and the company’s mission.
• Host of The Thinking Youth podcast — Introduces the interview and asks about AI, Thawra’s features, company growth, and the founders’ decisions.
• Saeed Shahabi — Hani’s brother and co-founder; mentioned in the interview but not a main speaker in the subtitles.