3 ms·

Many actions can be made faster and with better precision in UI compared to slow texting with gpt.

mbil 4y ago
This is true today, but will it be true in the future where language models are a common interface between human language (probably voice) and software actions? When I go to my bank's website, it's easy for me to find my tax forms. They're usually one or two clicks away in some prominent top-level navigation component. But I would rather converse: "Download tax forms"/"Which ones: A, B, or C"/"The first two"/"Here ya go". And in the future I'd rather say "Hey computer, download my tax forms from my bank and attach them in a draft email to <tax preparer>". And in the later future that I'd rather say "Hey computer, do my taxes", and it will know what sources to gather info from and how to make sense of the numbers and how to file on my behalf. Or better yet, the machine will anticipate I need my taxes done and will kick off that process and solicit approvals and information from me. (Maybe by then the government will just tell me how much I owe ;)) Power users will likely sometimes find utility in dropping down "close to the metal" -- i.e., pointing and clicking and typing. But power users will mostly be composing workflows of models working together to achieve tasks (the term "scripts" will fit nicely). Yes this will be buggy and error-prone, but there will be glue models papering over the errors and trying different things and waiting for outages until the human user's intent is done. Language models are giving us another layer of abstraction over software. Perhaps the final layer, as this one can interact directly with language (which is reified thought). This layer has the ability to cope with the inherent ambiguity of thought by being conversational -- it can ask you to clarify what you mean and gain confidence that it understands your intent.
- riku_iki 4y ago
  > When I go to my bank's website, it's easy for me to find my tax forms. They're usually one or two clicks away in some prominent top-level navigation component. But I would rather converse: "Download tax forms"/"Which ones: A, B, or C"/"The first two"/"Here ya go". I think this supposedly should be solved by search box on the site, where you enter: "tax forms" and got results with download button.
- pragmatick 4y ago
  Creating the actions may be easier but parsing / understanding them will often be easier in any format that prose / plain text. I'd rather have a UI with a list of steps and colors and what not than a text I have to read. Take for example the list of steps in the project. They contain a lot of redundant information I have to mentally ignore.
93po 4y ago
Yes, but I would rather the AI determine which actions these are and dynamically generate UI elements for me instead of relying on whatever shithead UI/UX person at LinkedIn wants me to look at to trick me into sharing all of my contact book.
- riku_iki 4y ago
  I think era of shithead AI is also coming.
  - evilduck 4y ago
    It was trained on the internet. Shithead AI is already lurking beneath the veneer.
  - rurp 4y ago
    Yep. The notion that AIs, funded by companies like Microsoft of all places, is going to lead to a golden age of user interfaces boggles my mind.
    - 411111111111111 4y ago
      To be fair, didn't they actually do that with the UI element it's named after (windows...)? I think the menu bar, the window with the header bar and the action buttons where all pioneered by them back then, or am I mistaken? It's been 30 yrs though, so I get what you mean.
      - Jorengarenar 4y ago
        IIRC, Microsoft "borrowed" the design from Apple Macintosh, which in turn was based on Xerox's technology. So no, they weren't the pioneers.
      - rurp 4y ago
        That's fair, I think the Microsoft of 30 years ago did pretty well with UIs. That said, given the state of Windows 11 and their other modern products I think their current priorities are quite a bit different.

mbil 4y ago

This is true today, but will it be true in the future where language models are a common interface between human language (probably voice) and software actions? When I go to my bank's website, it's easy for me to find my tax forms. They're usually one or two clicks away in some prominent top-level navigation component. But I would rather converse: "Download tax forms"/"Which ones: A, B, or C"/"The first two"/"Here ya go". And in the future I'd rather say "Hey computer, download my tax forms from my bank and attach them in a draft email to <tax preparer>". And in the later future that I'd rather say "Hey computer, do my taxes", and it will know what sources to gather info from and how to make sense of the numbers and how to file on my behalf. Or better yet, the machine will anticipate I need my taxes done and will kick off that process and solicit approvals and information from me. (Maybe by then the government will just tell me how much I owe ;)) Power users will likely sometimes find utility in dropping down "close to the metal" -- i.e., pointing and clicking and typing. But power users will mostly be composing workflows of models working together to achieve tasks (the term "scripts" will fit nicely). Yes this will be buggy and error-prone, but there will be glue models papering over the errors and trying different things and waiting for outages until the human user's intent is done. Language models are giving us another layer of abstraction over software. Perhaps the final layer, as this one can interact directly with language (which is reified thought). This layer has the ability to cope with the inherent ambiguity of thought by being conversational -- it can ask you to clarify what you mean and gain confidence that it understands your intent.

riku_iki 4y ago
> When I go to my bank's website, it's easy for me to find my tax forms. They're usually one or two clicks away in some prominent top-level navigation component. But I would rather converse: "Download tax forms"/"Which ones: A, B, or C"/"The first two"/"Here ya go". I think this supposedly should be solved by search box on the site, where you enter: "tax forms" and got results with download button.
pragmatick 4y ago
Creating the actions may be easier but parsing / understanding them will often be easier in any format that prose / plain text. I'd rather have a UI with a list of steps and colors and what not than a text I have to read. Take for example the list of steps in the project. They contain a lot of redundant information I have to mentally ignore.

93po 4y ago

Yes, but I would rather the AI determine which actions these are and dynamically generate UI elements for me instead of relying on whatever shithead UI/UX person at LinkedIn wants me to look at to trick me into sharing all of my contact book.

riku_iki 4y ago
I think era of shithead AI is also coming.
- evilduck 4y ago
  It was trained on the internet. Shithead AI is already lurking beneath the veneer.
- rurp 4y ago
  Yep. The notion that AIs, funded by companies like Microsoft of all places, is going to lead to a golden age of user interfaces boggles my mind.
  - 411111111111111 4y ago
    To be fair, didn't they actually do that with the UI element it's named after (windows...)? I think the menu bar, the window with the header bar and the action buttons where all pioneered by them back then, or am I mistaken? It's been 30 yrs though, so I get what you mean.
    - Jorengarenar 4y ago
      IIRC, Microsoft "borrowed" the design from Apple Macintosh, which in turn was based on Xerox's technology. So no, they weren't the pioneers.
    - rurp 4y ago
      That's fair, I think the Microsoft of 30 years ago did pretty well with UIs. That said, given the state of Windows 11 and their other modern products I think their current priorities are quite a bit different.