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> Programs should precisely define what their inputs are and loudly reject all else. …when interfacing with other programs. Humans aren't programs, which is a
by adwn 2y ago
> Programs should precisely define what their inputs are and loudly reject all else.
…when interfacing with other programs. Humans aren't programs, which is a somewhat important distinction.
- kazinator 2y agoWell, firstly, take a look at some tech news, because it sure looks to me like people left and right are interfacing programs with AI, desperately scrambling to get reliable, stable outputs out of their prompts. Secondly, people need precision and stability in program behavior also. People learn that when they give a certain command, they get a certain effect, and they don't want it to break. Interfaces that allow people to express some wish in many ways (language, direct manipulation, ...) can still be rigidly defined: appear flexible to the casual user, but rigid to someone who cares to study the several thousand rules under the hood (or whatever).
- adwn 2y agoBut we aren't talking about "interfacing programs with AI", and we aren't talking about "[giving] a certain command, [getting] a certain effect". We are talking about one-off invocations directly by a human. Tools like llmpeg aren't intended to be a component in your CI/CD scripts, but for the command line user who wants to casually convert some media files and who hasn't memorized ffmpeg's full CLI interface.