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AI tools I wish existed

sharif.io

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Re: AI tools I wish existed

#21

Post by sharkjacobs »

kmoser wrote: post #6

> 9. A minimalist ebook reader that lets me read ebooks, but I can highlight passages and have the model explain things in more depth off to the side. It should also take on the persona of the author. It should feel like an extension of the book and not a separate chat instance. Companies are already doing this so you can chat with the "author": https://www.wired.com/story/why-read-books-when-you-can-use-...

> It should feel like an extension of the book and not a separate chat instance.

So like footnotes? Or more like Socrates suddenly goes off on an anachronistic 1200 word discursion, in the middle of Phaedrus, about Freudian interpretations of his argument

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#23

Post by supriyo-biswas »

charcircuit wrote: post #3

>A recommendation engine that looks at my browsing history, sees what blog posts or articles I spent the most time on, then searches the web every night for things I should be reading that I’m not. In the morning I should get a digest of links I don't understand why Google, Brave, or Mozilla are not building this. This already exists in a centralized form like X's timeline for posts, but it could exist for the entire…

It already exists in the form of the news feed on Google News and the one in the chrome mobile app, although the ability to tune this is only being able to click on articles to express your interest in them, instead of being able to provide a list of articles.

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#24

Post by siddboots »

brotchie wrote: post #10

+100000 to A hybrid of Strong (the lifting app) and ChatGPT where the model has access to my workouts, can suggest improvements, and coach me. I mainly just want to be able to chat with the model knowing it has detailed context for each of my workouts (down to the time in between each set). Strong really transformed my gym progression, I feel like its autopilot for the gym. BUT I have 4x routines I rotate through (I'…

I do this at the moment in my hand rolled personal assistant experiment built out of Claude code agents and hooks. I describe my workouts to Claude (among other things) and they are logged to a csv table. Then it reads the recent workouts and makes recommendations on exercises when I plan my next session etc. It also helps me manage projects, todos, and time blocked schedules using a similar system. I think the calorie counter that the OP describes would be very easy to add to this sort of set up.

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#25

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

sharkjacobs wrote: post #21
kmoser wrote: post #6

> 9. A minimalist ebook reader that lets me read ebooks, but I can highlight passages and have the model explain things in more depth off to the side. It should also take on the persona of the author. It should feel like an extension of the book and not a separate chat instance. Companies are already doing this so you can chat with the "author": https://www.wired.com/story/why-read-books-when-you-can-use-...

> It should feel like an extension of the book and not a separate chat instance. So like footnotes? Or more like Socrates suddenly goes off on an anachronistic 1200 word discursion, in the middle of Phaedrus, about Freudian interpretations of his argument

I was imagining the author was describing something like a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#26

Post by thatloststudent »

gyomu wrote: post #15

There's some sort of fundamental category mistake going on with thinking like this. Most of the items in this list fall prey to it, but it is maybe best exemplified by this one: > A writing app that lets you “request a critique” from a bunch of famous writers. What would Hemingway say about this blog post? What did he find confusing? What did he like? Any app that ever claimed to tell you what "Hemingway would say ab…

> A nano banana photo-editing app where I don’t have to write a prompt. Just give me hundreds of templates from trying out different haircuts to seeing what you and your partner’s kid would look like to making me look like The Rock. A photo editing super-app.

Quite a few of these "ideas" make me think that the human behind it wants to maximize laziness. Glazing over what Hemingway kinda sorta would have thought about something fits into this pretty well.

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#27

Post by charcircuit »

bad_haircut72 wrote: post #19
charcircuit wrote: post #3

>A recommendation engine that looks at my browsing history, sees what blog posts or articles I spent the most time on, then searches the web every night for things I should be reading that I’m not. In the morning I should get a digest of links I don't understand why Google, Brave, or Mozilla are not building this. This already exists in a centralized form like X's timeline for posts, but it could exist for the entire…

this doesnt even need AI to do really, and was an intrinsic part of the idea behind hyperlinking dating all the way back to Bush' memex (1940s)

You need AI to build an effective recommendation engine.

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#28

Post by jayd16 »

charcircuit wrote: post #3

>A recommendation engine that looks at my browsing history, sees what blog posts or articles I spent the most time on, then searches the web every night for things I should be reading that I’m not. In the morning I should get a digest of links I don't understand why Google, Brave, or Mozilla are not building this. This already exists in a centralized form like X's timeline for posts, but it could exist for the entire…

The idea is basically reddit, or Twitter or TikTok or YouTube or Facebook or anything with "an algorithm" but with a less defined form factor. People actually like their LinkedIn feed and YouTube feed separate.

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#29

Post by massung »

gyomu wrote: post #15

There's some sort of fundamental category mistake going on with thinking like this. Most of the items in this list fall prey to it, but it is maybe best exemplified by this one: > A writing app that lets you “request a critique” from a bunch of famous writers. What would Hemingway say about this blog post? What did he find confusing? What did he like? Any app that ever claimed to tell you what "Hemingway would say ab…

> Any app that ever claimed to tell you what "Hemingway would say about this blog post" would evidently be lying — it'd be giving you what that specific AI model generates in response to such a prompt.

First, 100% agreed.

That said, I found myself pondering Star Trek: TNG episodes with the holodeck, and recreations of individuals (e.g. Einstein, Freud). In those episodes - as a viewer - it really never occurred to me (at 15 years old) that this was just a computer's random guess as to how those personages from history would act and what they would say.

But then there was the episode where Geordi had to the computer recreate someone real from their personal logs to help solve a problem (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708682/). In a later episode you find out just how very wrong the computer/AI's representation of that person really was, because it was playing off Geordi, just like an LLM's "you're absolutely right!" etc. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708720/).

This is a long-winded way of saying...

1. It's crazy to me how prescient those episodes were.

2. At the same time, the representation of the historical figures never bothered me in those contexts. And I wonder if it should bother me in this (LLM) context either? Maybe it's because I knew - and I believed the characters knew - it was 100% fake? Maybe some other reason?

Anyway, your comment made me think of this. ;-)

Re: AI tools I wish existed

#30

Post by aaronbrethorst »

sharkjacobs wrote: post #21
kmoser wrote: post #6

> 9. A minimalist ebook reader that lets me read ebooks, but I can highlight passages and have the model explain things in more depth off to the side. It should also take on the persona of the author. It should feel like an extension of the book and not a separate chat instance. Companies are already doing this so you can chat with the "author": https://www.wired.com/story/why-read-books-when-you-can-use-...

> It should feel like an extension of the book and not a separate chat instance. So like footnotes? Or more like Socrates suddenly goes off on an anachronistic 1200 word discursion, in the middle of Phaedrus, about Freudian interpretations of his argument

This is probably what the kids would call 'cringe,' but I asked Claude to Summarize Plato's "Apology" into a brief rap that sounds like it could have come from "Hamilton"

The Trial of Socrates (An Athenian Rap)

[Verse 1]

My name is Socrates, corrupting the youth?

That's what they claim but I'm just seeking truth

Oracle said I'm the wisest alive—

I said "that's impossible," had to investigate why

Turns out everybody's fronting, they don't know what they say

Politicians, poets, craftsmen—all pretending every day

I expose their ignorance, make 'em look like fools

Now they're charging me with breaking all of Athens' rules

[Chorus]

I'm not throwing away my shot

At the examined life, whether they like it or not

Wisdom is knowing what you don't know

And I'd rather die than let philosophy go

[Verse 2]

Meletus, you're stepping to me? Son, you're confused

You say I'm atheist but blame me for introducing gods that are new?

Your story doesn't track, your logic's full of cracks

I've got a divine sign that keeps me on the righteous path

They want me silent, want me exiled, want me gone

But I'm Athens' gadfly, stinging till the break of dawn

Death? That's just a journey to another place

Either dreamless sleep or meeting heroes face to face

[Outro]

So sentence me to death, I'll drink the hemlock down

'Cause an unexamined life ain't worth living in this town

History will vindicate the questions that I ask—

The pursuit of truth and virtue is my only task!

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