In a recent interview, Instinct founder Noah Shinn shared contrarian views on personal AI assistants: they don't need standalone apps and can interact via SMS, WhatsApp, and email; a special data flywheel emerges, with ~40% of users willing to provide credit card info after about three weeks and ~80% retention after connecting sensitive data; AI assistants can form network effects; Instinct's annualized transaction volume exceeds $1 billion with just over 100,000 users; AI assistants could shift to a transaction commission model, with plans for one billion free users.