Avon Alumnus Leads AI Startup

Princeton sophomore Liam Hoffman (class of ’24) leverages AI for good

If you were to ask friends and neighbors what they feel about the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI), you’d get a mixture of answers ranging from, “It won’t have any effect,” to, “It is going to take over the world.” Most will shrug and admit it’s too early to tell. 

Avon High School class of ’24 valedictorian and Princeton University sophomore Liam Hoffman decided to do what he could to leverage considerable power of AI for the good. 

We wanted to create a solution that allows media literacy to become easy and accessible so people feel more confident in how they consume media. Liam Hoffman

Hoffman has launched an AI-powered tech startup called Lighthouse.

Meet Lighthouse

“We’ve seen how divided our country has become as a result of the media landscape,” says Hoffman. “We wanted to create a solution that allows media literacy to become easy and accessible so people feel more confident in how they consume media.” 

While still at AHS, Hoffman joined Civics Unplugged, a nonprofit working “to cultivate a generation of young leaders ready to take on society’s toughest challenges with clarity, creativity, and courage.” This summer Hoffman applied to and was accepted into Civics Unplugged’s inaugural Civics Innovation Lab in Washington DC.

Hoffman and four individuals who were selected – Virginia high school senior Sam Stankiewicz, University of Colorado student Melissa Wong, Stanford student Prince Nwalozie, and George Washington University student Regina Loria-Procel – have dedicated themselves to creating a web-based tool that will foster and support media literacy. 

Targeted to students but soon available to all via a Google Chrome browser extension, Lighthouse uses a proprietary, AI-generated ‘Source Quality Index’ and a library of dozens of custom widgets (that load situationally depending upon the type of information for which the user searches), Lighthouse provides deep context, alternative perspectives, fact checks, and much more. 

The tool is designed not to persuade but to serve as a companion. It helps users make smart, informed choices based on the media they consume. According to the Lighthouse website, every reader deserves clarity.

The extension is able to guide students from the time they receive their first learning device through the end of their educational journey and beyond. It will help students develop the skills and savvy they need to navigate through the weeds of misinformation, disinformation, persuasion, and half-truths that pervade the internet. In short, it helps students evaluate online information considering four important questions: Is it current? Is it reliable? Is it authoritative? What is its purpose?

Hoffman, who is serving as Chief Development Officer, is leading the Lighthouse team on a learning tour designed to help them refine their product and pitch while generating meaningful connections. They are meeting with school administrators – several Avon administrators met with the team for an hour at Cabin Coffee Co. over winter break – to understand how they can make the product as useful as possible for students and their educators.

“Liam’s work offers great hope for our future and powerfully reflects the strength of the Avon education system,” says Avon Director of Secondary Teaching & Learning Dr. Matt Hines. “Lighthouse shows tremendous promise, and I look forward to seeing how the company continues to grow and bring greater clarity and purpose to students nationwide.”

Liam’s work offers great hope for our future and powerfully reflects the strength of the Avon education system. Dr. Matt Hines

For the Lighthouse team, in addition to keeping up with their studies, “We are fully committed to Lighthouse’s success,” says Hoffman. As the second semester gets underway, the team remains engaged in a pre-seed round of fundraising and in the continual development and testing of the product. “Lighthouse will be available in the Google Chrome Web Store this March,” says Hoffman.

You can learn more about Lighthouse – including details about how to apply to be a product ambassador, request a demo, spread the word, and even become an investor – by visiting aboutlighthouse.co.