2 ex-Googlers are starting Humu, a machine learning company that wants to ‘make work better’

Less than a year after departing Google as its head of human resources, Laszlo Bock has become an entrepreneur. On Monday, he announced that he’s working on Humu, a startup designed to help us work better. He’s joined by Wayne Crosby, Google’s director of engineering who recently resigned. While details are sparse, the company plans on using science, machine learning, and “a little bit of love” to improve our jobs.

Humu, likely named after the Hawaii state fish Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, could be an extension of Bock’s experience from shaping the culture at one of the largest tech companies in the world, and it may also leverage insights shared in his book Work Rules!

In a 2015 interview, Bock remarked: “We’ve learned a lot over the years about what makes work more meaningful and productive — we’ve studied this at Google, reviewed the academic research and listened to companies far away from Silicon Valley doing inspiring things on the people front. I wanted this book to provide insights from all these sources to help others bring more happiness to the workplace, and to help us all find more inspiration and meaning in the work we do.”

Many services have tried to make work fun, but Humu wants to take a different approach, leveraging machine learning and science. How that works exactly remains to be seen, but in a LinkedIn post, Bock wrote about how there should be a way to ensure that employees always have good days at work, and not one where people see it as a job: “We should be constantly learning and growing, and surrounded by people who are doing the same. We all have good days and bad days, but what would work be like if every day were like our best days? Imagine what we could achieve.”

There’s currently no timeline for when Humu will officially launch.