This is the kind of thing I see as the ultimate app killer.
Maybe not this implementation in particular.
But almost all consumer apps can be removed with a chat interface.
Hiring a cab? “Please get me a cab to X from my current location”
Food: “please order delivery to my apartment. Something healthy and under $20”
Anything really.
And chatting as an interface is so much better than navigating every different user interface and app associated with these tasks.
Apps will mostly become backends only. UI front ends will be delegated to super data intensive environments where users need to help “guide” or monitor systems in real time where visual metrics are more efficient than reading text.
>And chatting as an interface is so much better than navigating every different user interface and app associated with these tasks.
Puhlease, speak for yourself. I don't need to be a whole another part of the city because chatbot/humanbot mistook a similar sounding name for what I need. I don't need 'something healty' from a pizza joint nor avokado slushie with a mini bits of artisanal flour combs.
I'm literally in the cab now, I know it came where I pointed (not where GPS suggested), I know where it whould get me, because personally set the point.
I feel like those issues could be ironed out by backend technical solutions though. Look at ChatGPT with Wolfram. Those two work together very well with high accuracy.
The same could be done with a cab or food. Of course the chat bot would confirm with you before placing an order.
I and many many people are sick of using 5 different transportation apps 4 different food ordering apps, etc.
> Those two work together very well with high accuracy.
When you know how to question things. Don't have an example at hand, but the last time I neede WA it took a lot of time to guide it to what I meant instead of it thought I meant.
>Of course the chat bot would confirm with you before placing an order.
Great, now you in the loop of 'no, remove X, add Y'.
> using 5 different transportation apps 4 different food ordering apps, etc.
My condolences. Though it's easier for me: I don't use apps for services besides Uber. There is zero need for a pizza joint to have an app (and have access to my phonebook, location etc). No service w/o app? No money from me.
Still, with a mere twenty variants of pizza I would prefer to look with my own eyes at them and select the one I want [now] than play the broken phone game with a chatbot.
> I feel like those issues could be ironed out by backend technical solutions though.
Or we can have a well designed and precise interface which lets you do what you want faster without having to type anything or constantly fight the machine to make sure your instructions were understood. The solution to AI shortcomings is not to throw more AI at it.
I feel like both have their place. I want to browse every option and read 100 reviews when I’m ordering a sofa or enrolling my kid in a school. But if I just want to make sure I have dishwasher detergent, size 4 diapers, and espresso beans waiting for me when I get home tonight, what I wouldn’t give for an AI agent which would — with just that prompt — do its best to make it happen, even if it had to deviate from brands or stores I would normally patronize in order to actually ensure that I got what I needed. Like a human assistant would. What I’m saying is, at least a third of my needs I’d be fine summarizing briefly like that and letting AI make an educated guess if it didn’t have enough history to rely on yet.
I’m just waiting with bated breath to see how this obvious desire to plug “AI” into things to create utility (optimistically assuming security gets sorted) collides with our present world where nobody from Expedia to retailers to governments provide any open APIs, only presenting (usually terrible) human UIs. Will the agents that eventually get made, just be emulating a browser and using computer vision and figuring out how to use these sites the way people do? Or will businesses open up and see API access to bots as a way to bring in more business?
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 31.1 ms ] threadMaybe not this implementation in particular.
But almost all consumer apps can be removed with a chat interface.
Hiring a cab? “Please get me a cab to X from my current location”
Food: “please order delivery to my apartment. Something healthy and under $20”
Anything really.
And chatting as an interface is so much better than navigating every different user interface and app associated with these tasks.
Apps will mostly become backends only. UI front ends will be delegated to super data intensive environments where users need to help “guide” or monitor systems in real time where visual metrics are more efficient than reading text.
Puhlease, speak for yourself. I don't need to be a whole another part of the city because chatbot/humanbot mistook a similar sounding name for what I need. I don't need 'something healty' from a pizza joint nor avokado slushie with a mini bits of artisanal flour combs.
I'm literally in the cab now, I know it came where I pointed (not where GPS suggested), I know where it whould get me, because personally set the point.
The same could be done with a cab or food. Of course the chat bot would confirm with you before placing an order.
I and many many people are sick of using 5 different transportation apps 4 different food ordering apps, etc.
When you know how to question things. Don't have an example at hand, but the last time I neede WA it took a lot of time to guide it to what I meant instead of it thought I meant.
>Of course the chat bot would confirm with you before placing an order.
Great, now you in the loop of 'no, remove X, add Y'.
> using 5 different transportation apps 4 different food ordering apps, etc.
My condolences. Though it's easier for me: I don't use apps for services besides Uber. There is zero need for a pizza joint to have an app (and have access to my phonebook, location etc). No service w/o app? No money from me.
Still, with a mere twenty variants of pizza I would prefer to look with my own eyes at them and select the one I want [now] than play the broken phone game with a chatbot.
Where in the world requires 5 different transportation apps and 4 different food delivery apps? I only need one
Or we can have a well designed and precise interface which lets you do what you want faster without having to type anything or constantly fight the machine to make sure your instructions were understood. The solution to AI shortcomings is not to throw more AI at it.
Chat is by nature unorganized and unspecialized.
To extend on this argument, this is also partially the reason that low code never took off.
I’m just waiting with bated breath to see how this obvious desire to plug “AI” into things to create utility (optimistically assuming security gets sorted) collides with our present world where nobody from Expedia to retailers to governments provide any open APIs, only presenting (usually terrible) human UIs. Will the agents that eventually get made, just be emulating a browser and using computer vision and figuring out how to use these sites the way people do? Or will businesses open up and see API access to bots as a way to bring in more business?
This is may be your opinion but it certainly isn't mine, I do not enjoy chats and find them to be worse than a UI in many cases.