Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Here come the AI assistants. They will do amazing things for us. Nothing new here. We’ve had these for decades. Nice, but not new.

I’ve seen several AI assistants recently. They are usually called “agents.” Well, “agent” is shorter and easier to spell than “assistant,” so I guess that is an improvement. And some of these agents, if they work, will be nice software to have.

Nice, but not new.

Let’s see: I have written a book, but I am not a good speller. Hey, AI agent, check and fix my spelling. Wow! It did it. What an amazing AI agent. Oh, that is a spell checker, that isn’t AI, that is easy. Really? Just check each word to see if it is the dictionary. Oh. How do you store the Oxford English Dictionary on the computer? How do you search it quickly? How do you compress everything? How do you index everything? You ever seen the algorithms for that? Simple stuff? Not hardly.

Let’s see: I have versions 270 and 271 of a source code file (simple text). What’s the difference between the two versions? Hey, AI agent, tell me differences. Wow! It did it. What an amazing AI agent. Oh, that is the old “diff” program running, that isn’t AI, that is easy. Really? Have you ever read the source code of plain old diff? Have you every examined the algorithm? Simple stuff? Not hardly.

I suppose we could go on with more examples of software that performs amazing and useful things for us. New? No. Nice? Yes. Clever algorithms invented by really smart people. They went from, “It would be nice to have such a thing,” to “This does it.” They didn’t hyperventilate about AI. They solved a problem.

AI agents and assistants? Some may work and then disappear into usefulness. New? No. Nice? Yes.