AI Assistant ​

Artificial intelligence has the potential to enhance our work and help us in our writing, thinking, and organization. Over time, Capacities will supercharge more and more workflows with the help of AI. The first step is the Capacities AI Assistant.

You can check out our playlist of AI videos here.

Setup ​

You can find all settings on AI features in the settings under “AI Assistant”. There you can either activate or hide all AI features.

At the moment, we rely on the OpenAI GPT models for text-based AI features. The space of AI is moving very fast, and we’ll adopt the latest trends. Once open-source models become more capable, we plan to host our own models, so no data will be sent to a third-party service.

AI Budget ​

The cost of using AI is currently very high, but we expect the cost to decrease over time. Therefore, we have to limit the usage of the AI Assistant.

You get a daily budget for the AI assistant. It is a budget for your Capacities account, not an individual space. We expect the cost of AI to decrease over time, and we will increase the budget accordingly.

Bring your own key ​

If you want to use the AI assistant without any limits, you can bring your own OpenAI API key. You won’t be charged until you hit your daily limit, even if you add your own key.

To add your own key:

1. Create an account on the OpenAI platform
2. Generate a new API key in your account settings
3. Add the API key to Capacities under Settings > AI Assistant > Bring your own key

You can add multiple keys and assign them to specific spaces. They will then only be used within that space. This is especially helpful if you want to use a different key for your personal spaces than for your work-related spaces.

Overview: Using AI to be more productive ​

At the moment, Capacities supports three AI features:

• AI Chats: If you want, you can start an AI chat based on your current note or the currently selected block. You can use commands to perform common tasks such as summarization and translation quickly. Any AI chat you started can be saved as an object to have permanent access to it.

• Ask AI command: A quick and convenient way to ask a question without launching an AI chat. Simply type your question inside a new block in your content and then type “/Ask AI”, and you will get a response to that question below.

• AI Property Auto-Fill: Rather than manually filling in the properties of your custom objects, you can rely on the AI model's knowledge to auto-fill them for you.

AI Chat ​

You can launch the AI chat in the top left of the application by clicking on the “stars” icon or by using ⌘ + J on Mac or Ctrl + J on Windows.

Select a context ​

You can open the AI chat with different contexts. The context defines the information that is passed to the AI as a reference. Currently, the following options are available:

• A block selection: If you select a set of blocks and then open the AI assistant from the blocks menu (or by using the shortcut), the AI will use that selection of blocks as a context.
• The currently active object: If you open the AI assistant without selecting any blocks in your active content, you can either choose to use the whole piece of content as context or just the title and its properties. Using just the title and properties allows you to save more budget compared to using the whole object.
• No context: You can also choose to share no context information with the AI. This allows you to simply ask questions and start a conversation with the AI.

Chat or use commands ​

You can draft your message without context at any time, but if you have chosen to use a block selection or page content as context, you can also use commands.

Commands will be applied based on the given context and are most valuable if used with a block selection.

You can trigger the command menu by typing / or +. There are several in-built commands that you can use:

1. Summarize
2. Continue writing
3. List key takeaways
4. Fix grammar
5. Simplify text
6. List TODOs
7. Translate to
8. List counter argument
9. Find evidence
10. Critique
11. Find research questions
12. Identify assumptions

After receiving a response from the AI, you can continue chatting to improve the result or ask follow-up questions.

Using the result in your notes ​

Once you have achieved your goal, you can select from different actions. You can choose them by clicking on them or by opening the “…” menu on a specific message.

You can copy a message, replace your selection with the message, or append it to your active document.

If you want to start the chat again or use a different prompt, go to your original message, click the three dots, and ‘reset chat to this message’.

You can have multiple chats open. Just use the AI button or the shortcut again.

Saving AI chats as objects ​

You may want to save your most important or eye-opening AI chats for further reference. This brings you all the functionalities that other objects have:

• Organize your favorite AI chats in collections.
• Tag them to relate them to relevant topics.
• Use the object dashboard to get an overview of all your AI chats.
• Link to your AI chats from within any other content.
• Search your whole conversations via the full-text search.

You can save any AI chat by clicking on the purple ‘Save as object’ button which is visible in the top right of the AI chat screen.

Once you’ve saved the chat, you can open it on its own screen. Here you can add tags, add it to collections, and rename it for easy referencing from other content later.

If you have used any context for the chat, the saved AI chat will be referenced in that object’s backlink section. You can also reference the AI chat as you would any other object, via the usual @ or [[]] commands. This helps truly integrate the AI chat into the rest of your knowledge work.

If you’d like to export a particular chat, you can use any of the existing export options.

These saved chats are also fully searchable via the full-text search. The search results will take you to the message that holds the search term which allows you to quickly find content you know you’ve saved.

This functionality also gives you the dashboard view which allows you to navigate your saved chats more easily and see what you haven’t tagged or added to a collection for example.

AI assistant on mobile ​

The AI assistant is especially helpful if you’re on the go. It is fully supported in our mobile app except for the use of commands.

To launch the AI assistant in the mobile app, you can select a context (e.g., a block selection or by opening the corresponding note), click on the “+” on the bottom, and then "AI Assistant". Saving your favorite AI chats as objects is supported on mobile too.

On mobile, all currently open AI chats can be accessed via the purple button on the bottom right. These chats correspond to the AI chats in the right side panel on the desktop/web version. Clicking it will open the AI chat in an overlay. You can switch between the different chats by clicking on the "Chats" dropdown at the top.

Ask AI command ​

If you don’t want to launch the AI chat, there is a quick and convenient way to ask a question. You can simply type your question into a new block in your content and then type “/Ask AI”, and you will get a response to that question below.

AI Auto-tagging ​

Tags are an important organizational structure in Capacities, and AI can help you use them.

AI identifies relevant tags from your existing tags and assigns them to that object. You can edit the selection if needed afterwards.

This option appears anywhere you see tags for an object.

Here's a video where you can see this in action:

AI Collection selection ​

Similar to the AI Auto-tagging, you can also use AI to select collections for your objects. Simply click on the AI button in the collection picker. The AI will then select the most relevant collections for your object. It will not create new collections but only select existing ones.

AI Property Auto-Fill ​

You can also use AI to auto-fill your properties. This allows you to quickly insert a fact summary or use the AI’s knowledge so you don’t have to research it.

This works for the following properties:

• text
• description
• select properties
• date
• number

You can activate the AI property auto-fill in the property settings. You can also choose to add more instructions in the property settings to get more accurate results.

It’s important that you first add content to some other properties (at least the title) so the AI has some context to fill your property.

After activating auto-fill for your property, you can simply click on the button that appears in your property field.

Adding additional instructions to your property auto-fill ​

If you're not happy with the result, you can add additional instructions to your property auto-fill in the property settings.

Additional instructions are added to the context that is sent to the AI. This allows you to give the AI more information about what you want to achieve.

Here are some examples:

• Keep in mind that this is a summary for a mathematical concept. Keep it simple and concise.

• This property should be a short summary of the main idea of this book. Do not include any details and keep it to 2 to 3 sentences.

• Do not make things up. Only use information that is already in this object.

You might need to play around with different options. It helps to be very specific. You are also welcome to share your best practices in our community.

What's next ​

We envision AI to be used in every layer of Capacities to make your workflows simpler, faster, and more powerful. Read more about our AI roadmap.

If you have any ideas, problems, or feature requests, please let us know on the feedback board.

Error Messages ​

If you encounter an error message while using the AI assistant, there are many reasons why this could happen. Here are some common problems:

• Issues with your API key: OpenAI requires you to top up your account with credits. If you have never used OpenAI before or if you have run out of credits, you will see an error message. You can check your balance in your OpenAI account.

• No access to a model: If you don’t have access to a specific model, you will see an error message. You can check whether you have access to a model by checking if the model is listed on your rate limits page.

• Token from a personal account: If you have a personal account, you might not have access to use the OpenAI API. You can check whether you have access to a model by checking if the model is listed on your rate limits page.

• Invalid API key: If you have entered an invalid API key, you will see an error message. Please double-check your key.

• Browser extensions blocking the AI assistant: Some browser extensions might block the AI assistant from working correctly. Please try disabling your browser extensions or use the app instead.