On AI Agents for Desktop Computing.

The landscape of Desktop Software has remained unchanged since the introduction of core primitives in the 1970s or so. Here are a few problems that I can think of, and how LLMs afford us to have the best shot at solving them we've had so far.

1. Core primitives based on physical counterparts which later extrapolated to skeuomorphism has meant that most software primitives are constricting. ex. Files and Folders, The Desktop Metaphor. Such shortcomings lead to the fact that people's thoughts and agency is dictated and limited by the tools available to them, and their tools cannot adapt to the way they think, as they should in an ideal scenario.

2. The onset of Web 2.0 and financial incentives introduced by Saas have accelerated the Inter-Operable Data Pipes → Siloes change across all apps and services, and while we had elaborate storage and organisation provisions when the bulk of computing happened offline, we couldn't do the same when Web 2.0 hit. The siloes will get even more walled and isolated, if web standards cannot be aligned across all participants to introduce an interoperability and data exposure protocol to ensure faster workflows for users, Al Agents deem to be the best user-facing solution to solve this issue.

3. As said earlier, tools dictate workflows and not the other way around. This is a fundamental bottleneck between the Human Computer interface channels. LLM-driven Generative Interfaces coupled with fragmented ad-hoc agents and programs represent the best chance of addressing this after the limited successes of past attempts like HyperCard.

4. Much of knowledge work, way more than it should be is non-autonomous. How wonderful would it be for references, crosslinks, related files, etc to magically appear within my work environment after I stop working, akin to leaving yogurt to set at night and being presented with a beautiful final product when you wake up! Once again, agents make for a wonderful first-class OS primitive to do this.

tIdr: malleable, ad-hoc, on-the-fly generated interfaces; autonomous agents that work as mini-you(s).