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If only handloom operators hadn’t been replaced by steam looms we’d all be in a better place.
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Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
11–20 of 71 posts
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#12My 2.5 year old yesterday starting saying "Hey, This is a test, Can you hear me?", parroting me spending hours testing my LLM. Hah.
This will work with a https://www.pipecat.ai type system? Would love to wrap a continuous testing system with my bot.
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#13Why “Hamming”? As in Richard Hamming, ex-Bell Labs, “You and Your Research”?
Yup, we named it after Richard Hamming. His essay 'you and your research' was deeply influential during my undergrad; I re-read it every quarter.
Our current product draws inspiration from Hamming distance because we're comparing the `distance` between current LLM output vs. desired LLM output.
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#14Wow, gonna test this with my Retell AI agent.
Nice! What's the use case your agent solves for?
I'm happy to spin up some scenarios that are more relevant for you instead of our stock demo personas :)
Feel free to email me at sumanyu@hamming.ai
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#15That drive through customer… oh my. I have new found empathy for drive through operators.
Yes! Drive-through customers can be very impatient. We tried to make the demo persona maximally annoying.
Testing for edge cases is especially important because getting an order wrong can cause health hazards, long line-ups, and churn!
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#16There is not even one reliable and proven "voice agent" yet (correct me if I'm wrong but the best available, elevenlabs, isn't that great yet to be a voice agent) but there is already companies selling the test of voice agents?
Selling shovels on a gold rush seems to have become the only one mantra here.
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#17The idea of testing an agent with annoying situations, like uncooperative people or vague responses, makes me wonder if, in the future, similar approaches might be tried on humans. People could be (unknowingly) subjected to automated "social benchmarks" with artificially designed situations, which I'm sure I don't have to explain how dystopian that is.
It would essentially be another form of a behavioral interview. I wonder if this exists already, in some form?
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#18Nice! Great to see the UI looks clean enough that it's accessible to non-engineers. The prompt management and active monitoring combo looks especially useful. Been looking for something with this combo for an expense app we're building.
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#19The idea of testing an agent with annoying situations, like uncooperative people or vague responses, makes me wonder if, in the future, similar approaches might be tried on humans. People could be (unknowingly) subjected to automated "social benchmarks" with artificially designed situations, which I'm sure I don't have to explain how dystopian that is. It would essentially be another form of a behavioral interview. I…
I wonder if a more optimistic version of this could be used to train humans and improve their skills. I'm thinking along the lines of LeetCode / Project Euler, but more dynamic and personalized!
Few examples:
1) Customer service: Simulating challenging customer interactions could help reps develop patience and problem-solving skills.
2) Emergency responders: Creating realistic crisis scenarios (like 911 calls) that could improve decision-making under pressure.
3) Healthcare: Virtual patients with complex symptoms could speed up the learning rate for med students.
4) Conflict resolution: Practicing with difficult personalities could aid mediators and negotiators.
5) Sales: AI-simulated tough customers could help salespeople refine their pitches and objection-handling skills in a low-stakes environment.
Thoughts?
Re: Launch HN: Hamming (YC S24) – Automated Testing for Voice Agents
#20AI voice agents are weird to me because voice is already a very inefficient and ambiguous medium, the only reason I would make a voice call is to talk to a human who is equipped to tackle the ambiguous edge cases that the engineers didn't already anticipate.
If you're going to develop AI voice agents to tackle pre-determined cases, why wouldn't you just develop a self-serve non-voice UI that's way more efficient? Why make your users navigate a nebulous conversation tree to fulfill a programmable task?
Personally when I realize I can only talk to a bot, I lose interest and end the call. If I wanted to do something routine, I wouldn't have called.