Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs • Hacker News Board

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#211

Post by latorf » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 3:14 PM UTC

kn81198 wrote: post #89

About a decade back Bret Victor [1] talked about how his principle in life is to reduce the delay in feedback, and having faster iteration cycles not just helps in doing things (coding) better but also contributes to new creative insights. He had a bunch of examples built to showcase alternative ways of coding, which is very close to being HUDs - one example shown in the OP is very similar to the one he presents to "…

This!!! Thank you, couldn't have said it better. One of the best talks I've ever seen, and a huge inspiration for a lot of work I've done.

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#212

Post by cat-whisperer » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 3:22 PM UTC

I'm thinking AR glasses with AI HUDs and we're basically there - my to-do list just got a whole lot more interesting.

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#213

Post by fwip » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 3:41 PM UTC

WithinReason wrote: post #74

furyofantares wrote: post #68

I'm very curious if a toggle would be useful that would display a heatmap of a source file showing how surprising each token is to the model. Red tokens are more likely to be errors, bad names, or wrong comments.

previously undefined variable and function names would be red as well

It would depend on how surprising the name is, right? The declaration of `int total` should be relatively unsurprising at the top of a function named `sum`, but probably more surprising in `reverseString`.

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#214

Post by naikrovek » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 3:48 PM UTC

naikrovek wrote: post #192

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There already are debates about "drive by wire" in racing today, I can't imagine how bad it'll be when it's "drive by copilot."

"copilot, win this race for me."

"copilot, experience either the joy of victory or the pain of defeat for me, depending on the outcome of the race."

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#215

Post by monkpit » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

I was recently thinking, if services offered sufficient api docs/specs you could really just provide an llm to the client and have any client build their own UI to fit their needs. Maybe not that you’d want to. But you could!

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#216

Post by bigyabai » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 3:58 PM UTC

darkwater wrote: post #110

bigyabai wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda do this today, with Alpaca[0]'s sandboxed terminal runner and GSConnect[1] syncing the response notifications to my phone over LAN. [0] https://jeffser.com/alpaca/ [1] https://github.com/GSConnect/gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect

And, out of curiosity, what are the outputs of this agentic work?

Perennially checking if local models stack up to Claude 3.

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#217

Post by bitwize » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 4:01 PM UTC

I want AI (machine learning statistical techniques) to convert my brainwaves into text so that I can think my programs into the computer. That would be a useful breakthrough in AI-assisted programming,

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#218

Post by _jab » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

There’s a lot of ideation for coding HUDs in the comments, but ironically I think the core feature of most coding copilots is already best described as a HUD: tab completion.

And interestingly, that is indeed the feature I find most compelling from Cursor. I particularly love when I’m doing a small refactor, like changing a naming convention for a few variables, and after I make the first edit manually Cursor will jump in with tab suggestions for the rest.

To me, that fully encapsulates the definition of a HUD. It’s a delightful experience, and it’s also why I think anyone who pushes the exclusively-copilot oriented Claude Code as a superior replacement is just wrong.

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#219

Post by imglorp » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:07 PM UTC

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #191

kevinphy wrote: post #145

This whole Copilot vs HUD debate instantly brought to mind a classic Japanese anime from 1991 called Future GPX Cyber Formula ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_GPX_Cyber_Formula ). Yeah, it’s a racing anime set in the then-distant future of 2015, where cars come with full-on intelligent AIs. The main character’s car, Asurada, is basically a "Copilot" in every sense. It was designed by his dad to be more than jus…

There already are debates about "drive by wire" in racing today, I can't imagine how bad it'll be when it's "drive by copilot."

Rally co-driver/navigator seems reasonable, given its augmented senses like gps and radar.

One part "90 degree right in 200m" and one part "OMG, sheep, dodge left".

Re: Enough AI copilots, we need AI HUDs

#220

Post by numpad0 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

mxmlnkn wrote: post #197

kevinphy wrote: post #145

This whole Copilot vs HUD debate instantly brought to mind a classic Japanese anime from 1991 called Future GPX Cyber Formula ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_GPX_Cyber_Formula ). Yeah, it’s a racing anime set in the then-distant future of 2015, where cars come with full-on intelligent AIs. The main character’s car, Asurada, is basically a "Copilot" in every sense. It was designed by his dad to be more than jus…

The Anime Yukikaze (2002 - 2005) has some similar themes. It's about a fighter jet pilot using a new AI-supported jet to fight against aliens. It asserts that the combination of human intuition and artificial intelligence trumps either of the two on its own. If I remember correctly, the jet can pilot on its own, but when it becomes dangerous, the human pilot only uses the AI hints instead of letting it autopilot.

I wish Kambayashi was just more widely known. Or Japanese Sci-Fis and LNs in general. There have been couple legitimate "oh that's now reality" moments for me in real world developments of AI.