Can AI free us from UI?

Published: Jan 16, 2025, 03:46:48 PM UTC
Revised (1): Jan 16, 2025, 04:08:24 PM UTC

Four months ago I deleted the social media apps from my phone. Except Substack, which at first I didn't consider a social media app (1). I didn't delete my accounts, and I'm expected to review certain X posts at work, which I do.

On those occasions I do end up back inside X on my computer, it feels like stepping into a torrent. A deluge of insights, bullshit, bots, and vitriol. I feel that humans aren't meant to experience this—it's meant for machines. The data flow is too visceral, and I don't want to experience it directly.

What I want is to have my proxy, my agent in current parlance, navigate that world for me. I want it to report back potentially interesting information and engage with other humans or bots as needed, all without me ever seeing the X interface or any content directly. You can imagine a future where X will be exclusively bots, agents, or whatever you want to call AI/LLM software. Perhaps it's just a coordination protocol without a user interface at all.

Beyond text-based social media (X, Substack, etc.), I want to see this same idea extend to SaaS, though for a different reason (2). I want to stop clicking. I have doubtless spent many weeks worth of time (please, I hope it's not years) clicking my mouse buttons to navigate SaaS. What a colossal waste of precious time.

Luckily, I'm skilled at navigating SaaS and take pride in always being the one to figure out how to change the setting in some poorly designed hidden menu. You could say I speak SaaS—it is generally intelligible to me. Yet, the interface is unnatural. It’s like using a foreign-language phrase book while traveling (3). It might get you a coffee, but not any deep interactions. Machines don't need interfaces, they need protocols, networks, and APIs. Humans need speech, writing, and conversation. Yet alas, we have created our Frankenstein human/machine translator that will finally free us from trying to speak machine! Better a machine tool that speaks human (AI) than a human tool that speaks machine (UI).

Now that I can see the future, I know with certainty that I don't want to click anymore. I don't want to swipe. And I also don't want to spend countless hours in mostly unnecessary Slack and email conversations. I want my agent to step into this flow as well and act as my filter. Probably 90% of my Slack comms and emails could be handled by an agent. This would allow me far more time to handle the truly important 10% and spend time with humans in the real world (or at least on video). I want this deeply and it's attainable.

My sincere hope is that the age of AI will free us from the shackles we ourselves have crafted. Let us allow machines to rule the software realm and make networks their playground. We built these for them after all. And I, for one, would be content never seeing an algorithmic feed or SaaS UI ever again.

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Notes

(1) Wrong. Substack Notes are essentially X and you can abuse long-form content too.

(2) I did not mention image/video social media because it needs to be killed outright. It is not even suitable for bots.

(3) These did used to exist, I promise.