We built Ubik Studio because in professional research settings, or fields where accurate citation is required, AI tools kinda flop. Models hallucinate citations with total confidence and you are locked into one provider. Multi-hop tasks degrade in quality. Context engines fail on file-based work. And without step-by-step approval flows, humans now spend more time verifying AI work than doing the work itself, this is super strange.

We really believe that a successful AI use requires expert-level human judgment and verification. Researchers would rather work slower with certainty than fast and wrong.

Since we started building Ubik 2 years ago, we've focused on an assistive, human-in-the-loop design. We're model-agnostic and built-ready for the near future where local models run effectively on personal computers. We've spent all our research effort on the hard problems: multi-hop reasoning across complex tasks that require gathering sources, maintaining file context, and generating text with accurate evidence attribution. We've built a context engine and citation engine that our agents use to cite accurately and cross-analyze documents without hallucination across models.

Our HITL-AI design gives you control, transparency, and capabilities that mainstream AI tools lack. Our current users are professionals, researchers, and grad students doing work where accuracy and attribution are non-negotiable. Ubik Studio delivers a Cursor-like experience for professional researchers who struggle to integrate tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or NotebookLM into their high-level workflows.

We would love and appreciate your feedback, everything is public we have some paying users (super proud), but ofc we are always learning <3

https://www.ubik.studio/download

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47651871

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

After finding these points throughout the 8 files, the agent should create a new document that cites findings in-text, with verifiable click through.

With Gemini 3.1 Flash, Ubik Agents analyzed 8 PDFs, found 49 usable quotes, and generated a 1000 word annotated guide that explains its findings with in-text citations that verifiably link to cited points of information across documents inside my workspace in 6 minutes (video 2x speed).

Try Ubik: www.ubik.studio/download

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47651391

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47639174

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Two years of failed AI integrations have killed blind trust. Enterprises are moving toward workflows that require human judgment and verification. Professional researchers would rather work slower with certainty than fast and wrong.

Since inception, we've focused on assistive, human-in-the-loop design. We're model-agnostic and built-ready for the near future where local models run effectively on personal computers. We've spent all our research effort on the hard problems: multi-hop reasoning across complex tasks that require gathering sources, maintaining file context, and generating text with accurate evidence attribution. We've built a context engine and citation engine that our agents use to cite accurately and cross-analyze documents without hallucination across models.

Our HITL-AI design gives you control, transparency, and capabilities that mainstream AI tools lack. Our users are professionals, researchers, and grad students doing work where accuracy and attribution are non-negotiable. Ubik Studio delivers a Cursor-like experience for professional researchers who struggle to integrate tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or NotebookLM into their high-level workflows, and we are very proud to hear praise from our users like:

"I can check all citations for every sentences. Your software is the same as NotebookLm, even better because I can see some parts in PDF which link to the results from AI models. NotebookLM cannot open locations of PDF where the citations appear, just text. I don't care about text, I need precision, accurateness in every sentence."

We would love and appreciate your feedback, everything is public we have some paying users (super proud), but ofc we are always learning <3

If a model-agnostic AI workspace that centralizes writing, searching, document analysis, and LLM-assistance locally sounds helpful for you, please give it a try!

https://www.ubik.studio/download

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47622878

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

I build AI tools for knowledge work and am a multi-medium digital artist.

More work/links here: https://aka4uh.com/ <3

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46725016

Points: 3

# Comments: 3

Little clunky right now - some issues with the time selection/pausing and playing.

But trying to make it run in Ableton so I can control with a midi controller like my APC40, so I can change the visualizer live time during my live sets on stage.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45804395

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

What's New?

1. Improved PDF ingestion: wait times have been reduced, varying times based on size & # of PDFs uploaded (DOCX soon, wait for files to turn green in context bar). 2. Simplified layout: Panel option added (top right of page). 3. Added models: 200+ frontier/experimental models. 4. Compare Canvas: See text documents (Canvas) side by side, apply changes where you see fit. 5. Improved system prompt/tool calling: Agents are more aware of all tool purposes. 6. Abstract page: not all papers are open-access - new abstract page has core info and routes to DOI.

What is Ubik? Ubik is an AI Research Environment (AiRE). With context-aware agents, academic database access (ArXiv/Semantic Scholar), and consistent human approval, Ubik improves agentic capabilities, minimizes hallucination, and makes LLM-assisted writing usable in high-level research and citation-based work. How does Ubik do this?

Agent Orchestration We build our agents optimized around their environments, not a specific model, making it easy to run them in the cloud, on devices, and eventually with local models.

Dynamic Context Engine This helps the AI and the human understand the larger project at hand, as well as any research criterion (citation styling, topic area focus, finding new sources, context of a project)

1. NOT just embeddings or semantic search! 2. Custom document parsing and enhanced OCR for in-text citations and transparent AI output 3. Agentic analysis to extract, understand, and markup documents beyond single questions 4. Like Cursor, Ubik knows your workspace. For improved accuracy, you can reference all files and agent-made items (notes/canvas) while prompting using the @ symbol.

Why did we build Ubik? Because generative tools help experts and hurt beginners, quick solutions to complex problems without friction/interactivity between the initial prompt and the desired output don’t build cognitive skills in beginners that experts have mastered without AI (vibe code, vibe physics, vibe xyz = AI slop). Unlike beginners, experts amplify their human intelligence because they can correct AI output and understand when the model/agent is unhelpful or hallucinating; this is intellectual agility, a critical skill for effective AI use.

https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/08/07/a-new-worst-coder-has-... https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/7/vibe-engineering/ https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/vibe-physics-ai-slop...

The Cognitive Cost: MIT is conducting an ongoing neurological study on ChatGPT users' brain activity while using the AI chatbot to complete tasks. MIT's early findings are worrying. LLM-assisted writers could not complete writing tasks effectively or efficiently. What does this mean? Critical thinking skills and intellectual agility crumble when we treat AI as an oracle.

https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/your-brain-on-chatgpt/ove... https://bigthink.com/business/ai-will-never-be-a-shortcut-to...

Ubik v1 Today: https://app.ubik.studio is live (v1). Our current 260 users (researchers, scientists, and students) who use Ubik for their citation-based work. Before we release the full Ubik App, the platform will be free! Sign up for our PDF analysis tools, and please reach out with any feedback.

Ubik App v2 (electron app) Coming Soon: Reduces all wait times on PDF ingestion, unifies our agents, and is built ready for local, on-machine models. We are working on our custom eval suite for knowledge work/evidence attribution (reach out to learn more).

If you are interested in a demo of our full app, would like to enter a beta/testing group for the app, or want to understand more about Ubik, please email me: ieuan@ubik.studio

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45721494

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45608208

Points: 3

# Comments: 3

We do not believe that Vibing is productive and hope to help minimize Vibe anything. Research is not disposable and should not be treated as another thing to automate; instead, we should build AI tools that help build critical thinking and creativity in humans.

So what is Ubik?

Ubik is the first AI Research Environment (AiRE): just like an IDE (coding) or a DAW (music production), Ubik is an environment for high-level research and deep knowledge work. Rather than quick/vague generation, Ubik agents can be contextually locked into PDFs added to chat. Like Cursor, all files and AI items can be referenced while prompting using the @ symbol. Search, analyze, and cite papers found in ArXiv and Semantic Scholar. Generate text with citation, and build a knowledge base that amplifies human intelligence instead of replacing it.

If you think this sounds like a helpful tool, go check it out and lmk what you think - Ubik will be free until 2026 :3

We are testing our custom-built EVAL suite and currently scoring above 90% on standard PDF EVALs and will be publishing soon <3

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45428849

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

We hear consistent complaints from academics, researchers, and scientists about AI chatbots having poor PDF awareness and often generating incorrect citations. This is bad for high-level researchers and people learning who need answers grounded in evidence.

We took the best parts of Cursor, like workspace awareness, @ symbol referencing, and human approval/oversight, and built a PDF browser with academic database searching (ArXiv and Semantic Scholar) + our Ubik agents that can highlight text down to the line level and use our "Detailed Notes Tool".

Why is this better? With Ubik agents, you can either upload a PDF or search for an open-access paper and save it to your workspace (ingest the document and turn it into an interactive AI doc). With our Cursor-like @ referencing, prompt agents like: What the paper @example is about, highlight 10 points using the notes tool, and summarize why each point is important.

Unlike any available agents or models, Ubik agents can highlight text down to the line level; we call this a note. Every note is referable in chat using the @ symbol or drag-and-drop it into chat with any other file, canvas, found paper, etc.

Cross-analyze, annotate, and generate with citations. Pick from 20+ models, and use @ symbol referencing to craft better prompts that minimize hallucination and increase efficacy.

Start researching: https://app.ubik.studio/chat

Full app for MacOS and Windows soon + Custom EVAL suite almost done and ready to start test (will def share findings)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45304934

Points: 3

# Comments: 2

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45262563

Points: 15

# Comments: 18