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I recognized this a few months back when I wanted to see the algorithm that a website used to do a calculation. I just put the minified JS in ChatGPT and figure

I recognized this a few months back when I wanted to see the algorithm that a website used to do a calculation. I just put the minified JS in ChatGPT and figured it out pretty easily. Let's take this a few steps out. What happens when a LLM can clone a whole SAAS app? Let's say I wanted to clone HubSpot. If an LLM can interact with a browser and figure out how a UI works and take code hints from un-mimified code I think we could see all SAAS apps be commoditized. The backend would be proprietary, but it could figure out API formats and suggest a backend architecture. All this makes me think AI's are going to be a strong deflationary force in the future.

sgt101 2y ago
I was with you until: >If an LLM can interact with a browser and figure out how a UI works and take code hints from un-mimified code I think we could see all SAAS apps be commoditized. The backend would be proprietary, but it could figure out API formats and suggest a backend architecture. whoooha! that's a lot of probing and testing of the SAAS that would be required in order to see how it behaved. SAAS aren't algorithms, they operate over data that's unseen on the front end as well... >All this makes me think AI's are going to be a strong deflationary force in the future. I don't get this. I've literally never worked anywhere which had enough software engineers, we've been going on about software crisis for about 50 years and things are arguably worse than ever. The gap between the demand for good software (in the sense that allocating capital to producing it would be sensible) and the fulfillment of that demand is bigger than ever. We just don't have the mechanisms to make this work and to make it work at an economically viable level. Then we get AI to help us and everyone thinks that the economy will shrink?
- IncreasePosts 2y ago
  You wouldn't necessarily need to do much probing - consider that the documentation would provide numerous hints to the agent as to what each endpoint was actually doing.
TheKarateKid 2y ago
Honestly, the value in most business software isn't the actual technology. It's the customer base and data held by the platforms. Someone could already easily clone HubSpot relatively cheaply even if they hired developers, but that doesn't mean it will be anywhere near successful.

sgt101 2y ago

I was with you until: >If an LLM can interact with a browser and figure out how a UI works and take code hints from un-mimified code I think we could see all SAAS apps be commoditized. The backend would be proprietary, but it could figure out API formats and suggest a backend architecture. whoooha! that's a lot of probing and testing of the SAAS that would be required in order to see how it behaved. SAAS aren't algorithms, they operate over data that's unseen on the front end as well... >All this makes me think AI's are going to be a strong deflationary force in the future. I don't get this. I've literally never worked anywhere which had enough software engineers, we've been going on about software crisis for about 50 years and things are arguably worse than ever. The gap between the demand for good software (in the sense that allocating capital to producing it would be sensible) and the fulfillment of that demand is bigger than ever. We just don't have the mechanisms to make this work and to make it work at an economically viable level. Then we get AI to help us and everyone thinks that the economy will shrink?

IncreasePosts 2y ago
You wouldn't necessarily need to do much probing - consider that the documentation would provide numerous hints to the agent as to what each endpoint was actually doing.

TheKarateKid 2y ago

Honestly, the value in most business software isn't the actual technology. It's the customer base and data held by the platforms. Someone could already easily clone HubSpot relatively cheaply even if they hired developers, but that doesn't mean it will be anywhere near successful.