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Show HN: Vom Decision Platform (Cursor for Decision Analyst)

15 points by davidreisbr 1y ago

Vom is decision platform to automate decisions, like credit or insurance underwriting. It's a low-code tool with an AI copilot/agent to help analyze and author decisions, as well as writing and running tests. It has built-in integrations to many data sources (like Plaid, Nova, Teller, any HTTP endpoint in fact) with caching and lazy evaluation for cost savings. Happy to talk about it and share ideas of what would make it even more useful.

mattbee 1y ago
In the UK (at least) "vom" is a synomym for vomit, throw up. I know Nintendo got away with Wii but this is another level.
- AStonesThrow 1y ago
  Well, the VIC-20 was poised for scandal in German-speaking markets, too...
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- stuaxo 1y ago
  I actually feel a bit queasy just seeing the word "vom" all over their screen.
omneity 1y ago
The section “Backed by leaders from Google, Microsoft, Meta..” is not clear. Do you have angel investors working at these companies, or what’s the relationship with your company?
- davidreisbr 1y ago
  We have Angel investors from high level positions at those companies.
conartist6 1y ago
Any thoughts on the aspect of tool like this being, gosh, I don't know else to say it except evil? To some extent, you've sanitized the business of ruining people's lives. This is the meat grinder. YOU as its creator don't fear it because it's your pet basilisk. But make no mistake, your pet is a killer monster the only real purpose of which is to but a rubber stamp on every kind of bias while removing accountability for doing violence to real people's lives. If you get rich with this, at least now you can't say nobody told you where the money was coming from. Think about it. What would you say if it made a mistake and ruined your life? "We're sorry, the AI says you're not allowed to have credit anymore." "We're sorry, you met the criteria to be targeted for extermination by a drone." "We're sorry, the AI scored you 8/10 on the deport-with-no-due-process chart, so off to no-rights terrorist prison." You'd care if it was you, but the fact is that you won't have any way of knowing when your client uses your product to ruin or even end a life. A counter won't tick up by one. You'll just be there thinking "another happy customer." Now that's vom-inducing.
- conartist6 1y ago
  I'll try to keep it productive though, since I imagine that businesses will continue to demand tools like this and it's foolish of me to think that someone won't make them. You asked how you could make it better. You need to think of yourself as having two sets of customers. One set is the decision-makers, and the other is the people being decided on. If you were to be successful it would be by bridging that gap between those two groups. I can only imagine that it would involve pairing decision-making with systems of accountability, transparency, and justice, as we do in governments -- as is necessary to do in any civic system that wields power. To expand: - Accountability: Who ensures the rules are meant to be fair not discriminatory? What do you do when the real problem is that the rules need to change? - Transparency: Can people understand why a decision was really made, or is how the system sees them a secret? If your goal is truly to help people then you need to enable them to help themselves by allowing them to understand the nature of their relationship to the decision-maker. - Justice: When the system gets it wrong, there must be recourse. If someone is about to lose their livelihood over a paperwork error, there needs to be a system of judicial review that they can engage. The real world is messy, and if you want to create value in the real world you need to engage with the mess instead of trying to oppress it with a system of absolute rules.

15 points by davidreisbr 1y ago

mattbee 1y ago

In the UK (at least) "vom" is a synomym for vomit, throw up. I know Nintendo got away with Wii but this is another level.

AStonesThrow 1y ago
Well, the VIC-20 was poised for scandal in German-speaking markets, too...
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
stuaxo 1y ago
I actually feel a bit queasy just seeing the word "vom" all over their screen.

omneity 1y ago

The section “Backed by leaders from Google, Microsoft, Meta..” is not clear. Do you have angel investors working at these companies, or what’s the relationship with your company?

davidreisbr 1y ago
We have Angel investors from high level positions at those companies.

conartist6 1y ago

Any thoughts on the aspect of tool like this being, gosh, I don't know else to say it except evil? To some extent, you've sanitized the business of ruining people's lives. This is the meat grinder. YOU as its creator don't fear it because it's your pet basilisk. But make no mistake, your pet is a killer monster the only real purpose of which is to but a rubber stamp on every kind of bias while removing accountability for doing violence to real people's lives. If you get rich with this, at least now you can't say nobody told you where the money was coming from. Think about it. What would you say if it made a mistake and ruined your life? "We're sorry, the AI says you're not allowed to have credit anymore." "We're sorry, you met the criteria to be targeted for extermination by a drone." "We're sorry, the AI scored you 8/10 on the deport-with-no-due-process chart, so off to no-rights terrorist prison." You'd care if it was you, but the fact is that you won't have any way of knowing when your client uses your product to ruin or even end a life. A counter won't tick up by one. You'll just be there thinking "another happy customer." Now that's vom-inducing.

conartist6 1y ago
I'll try to keep it productive though, since I imagine that businesses will continue to demand tools like this and it's foolish of me to think that someone won't make them. You asked how you could make it better. You need to think of yourself as having two sets of customers. One set is the decision-makers, and the other is the people being decided on. If you were to be successful it would be by bridging that gap between those two groups. I can only imagine that it would involve pairing decision-making with systems of accountability, transparency, and justice, as we do in governments -- as is necessary to do in any civic system that wields power. To expand: - Accountability: Who ensures the rules are meant to be fair not discriminatory? What do you do when the real problem is that the rules need to change? - Transparency: Can people understand why a decision was really made, or is how the system sees them a secret? If your goal is truly to help people then you need to enable them to help themselves by allowing them to understand the nature of their relationship to the decision-maker. - Justice: When the system gets it wrong, there must be recourse. If someone is about to lose their livelihood over a paperwork error, there needs to be a system of judicial review that they can engage. The real world is messy, and if you want to create value in the real world you need to engage with the mess instead of trying to oppress it with a system of absolute rules.