"Essential for Women"... American High School Students Create App with 5 Million Downloads Success

Diet App Developed by Two American Teenagers Gains Huge Popularity
Calculates Calories and Nutrients from Food Photos
Enhances Accuracy Using Models from Anthropic and OpenAI
Surpasses 5 Million Downloads Just Eight Months After Launch

This is a stock photo for illustrative purposes and is unrelated to the content. Getty Images

A diet-related application (app) developed by two American teenagers has hit a jackpot, recording 5 million downloads just eight months after its release. The app uses models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and others to accurately calculate and inform users of calories and nutrients when they take pictures of food, gaining word-of-mouth popularity and becoming a hot favorite among dieters.

According to IT media TechCrunch on the 16th (local time), the AI-based calorie analysis app 'Cal AI' earned $2 million (approximately 2.9 billion KRW) last month. The number of downloads surpassed 5 million within eight months of its launch. It also became a sensation with a 4.8-star rating and over 66,000 reviews on the Apple App Store. On Google Play, it received similarly high praise with over 75,000 reviews and a 4.8-star rating.

The app began gaining fame through major social networking services (SNS) such as TikTok. On SNS, there have been enthusiastic responses like "An app every woman needs," "A ray of hope for dieters," "Helps you become beautiful inside and out," "An app every woman should download immediately," "Highly recommend this really useful app," and "The reason you should rush to the App Store right now."

Moreover, it has become even more of a hot topic as it was revealed that the executives who developed the app and founded the company are teenagers. Jack Yadegari, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Henry Langmack, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), are both 18-year-olds who recently graduated from high school. The app originated from a teenage perspective. CEO Yadegari stated, "I came up with this app while going to the gym to impress the opposite sex."

Jack Yadegar, CEO of Kal AI (from left), Henry Langmack, CTO, Blake Anderson, Co-founder, Jake Castillo, COO. TechCrunch homepage

Cal AI uses AI-based image recognition technology to calculate calories and nutrients based on food photos. What sets it apart from other calorie counting apps is its use of models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and others to improve accuracy. It is known to have trained on open-source food calorie and image databases from GitHub. CEO Yadegari explained, "We found that various models showed better results for different foods." CEO Yadegari and CTO Langmack solved technical challenges such as recognizing ingredients on packaging or identifying food in mixed bowls through coding.

Cal AI employs eight staff members, including Jake Castillo (28), the Chief Operating Officer (COO), co-founder Blake Anderson, developers, designers, and social media managers. TechCrunch reported, "Many developers rate this app as having '90% accuracy,'" adding, "It is sufficiently useful for dieters."