Cookie.byte?

by Ali Kargin, Muskan Gupta, Leon Fan

Rethinking Privacy in the Age of AI For over 30 years, cookies have tracked users' online behavior, often accepted without thought. Cookie.byte serves as a provocative artifact, introducing friction into this process to encourage reflection on digital privacy. How it works? Visual Reminders: A UI overlay displays a face “spying” on the user, labeled with the company collecting their data, making surveillance visible. Conversational Reminders: A uniquely designed cookie jar lights up when opened, triggering a ChatGPT-powered conversation. These satirical interactions highlight the user's browsing habits and expose tracking practices. Learnings The project merges LLM API integration, prompt engineering, machine learning via Teachable Machine, and programming with Cursor. It creatively combines cutting-edge AI with a thought-provoking design to highlight privacy concerns. Cookie.byte transforms passive interactions into moments of awareness, challenging users to rethink their digital habits in the AI era.

The brief

A physical product that uses artificial intelligence to introduce invisible friction at key moments to reinforce positive habits or help manage negative ones. Think wearables, desktop tools, chrome plugin, or everyday objects etc. that could be present in your environment when the trigger happens.

  • Device → Detection → Habits
  • Device → Friction / Nudge

two-way functionality of the device:
  • It detects and monitors habits
  • It introduces friction or nudges to influence behavior

Making of(Video)

Notes