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159 points jonasnelle | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.676s | source

Hey HN, we're Alexi and Jonas the co-founders of Autotab (https://autotab.com). Autotab is a chrome-based browser you can teach to do complex tasks, with a simple API for running them from your app or backend.

Here is a walkthrough of how it works: https://youtu.be/63co74JHy1k, and you can try it for free at https://autotab.com by downloading the app.

Why a dedicated editor?

The number one blocker we've found in building more flexible, agentic automations is performance quality BY FAR (https://www.langchain.com/stateofaiagents#barriers-and-chall...). For all the talk of cost, latency, and safety, the fact is most people are still just struggling to get agents to work. The keys to solving reliability are better models, yes, but also intent specification. Even humans don't zero-shot these tasks from a prompt. They need to be shown how to perform them, and then refined with question-asking + feedback over time. It is also quite difficult to formulate complete requirements on the spot from memory.

The editor makes it easy to build the specification up as you step through your workflow, while generating successful task trajectories for the model. This is the only way we've been able to get the reliability we need for production use cases.

But why build a browser?

Autotab started as a Chrome extension (with a Show HN post! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37943931). As we iterated with users, we realized that we needed to focus on creating the control surface for intent specification, and that being stuck in a chrome sidepanel wasn't going to work. We also knew that we needed a level of control for the model that we couldn't get without owning the browser. In Autotab, the browser becomes a canvas on which the user and the model are taking turns showing and explaining the task.

Key features:

1. Self-healing automations that don't break when sites change

2. Dedicated authoring tool that builds memory for the model while defining steps for the automation

3. Control flows and deep configurability to keep automations on track, even when navigating complex reasoning tasks

4. Works with any website (no site-specific APIs needed)

5. Runs securely in the cloud or locally

6. Simple REST API + client libraries for Python, Node

We'd love to get any early feedback from the HN community, ideas for where you'd like the product to go, or experiences in this space. We will be in the comments for the next few hours to respond!

1. treetalker ◴[] No.42201971[source]
> As it runs, Autotab asks for clarifications and feedback. These learnings are accumulated into action memory—improving Autotab's world model, and allowing it to work reliably for hours on end.

Is "learning", used as a noun, a term of art in this field?

If not, my reactioning to that using is that it is a being bad English that causes producings of gratings on the ears.

replies(2): >>42202001 #>>42202102 #
2. beacon294 ◴[] No.42202001[source]
It's honestly common industry slang and may be British English.
replies(1): >>42202273 #
3. globalise83 ◴[] No.42202102[source]
It's widely used.

Source: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=0&q=%22learnings+fr...

4. earthlingdavey ◴[] No.42202273[source]
It's not really that common in British English. I've heard it from colleagues who learnt English in India.