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The case against conversational interfaces

(julian.digital)
279 points nnx | 5 comments | 01 Apr 25 02:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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ChuckMcM ◴[01 Apr 25 06:35 UTC] No.43543501[source]▶
This clearly elucidated a number of things I've tried to explain to people who are so excited about "conversations" with computers. The example I've used (with varying levels of effectiveness) was to get someone to think about driving their car by only talking to it. Not a self driving car that does the driving for you, but telling it things like: turn, accelerate, stop, slow down, speed up, put on the blinker, turn off the blinker, etc. It would be annoying and painful and you couldn't talk to your passenger while you were "driving" because that might make the car do something weird. My point, and I think it was the author's as well, is that you aren't "conversing" with your computer, you are making it do what you want. There are simpler, faster, and more effective ways to do that then to talk at it with natural language.
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pydry ◴[01 Apr 25 09:01 UTC] No.43544444[source]▶
This rules out conversational UI for some tasks and applications but there are many where it will be useful and many where a hybrid would be best.

Even in a car, being able to control the windscreen wipers, radio, ask how much fuel is left are all tasks it would be useful to do conversationally.

There are some apps (im thinking of jira as an example) where i'd like to do 90% of the usage conversationally.

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1. la_oveja ◴[01 Apr 25 10:25 UTC] No.43545066[source]▶
> Even in a car, being able to control the windscreen wipers, radio, ask how much fuel is left are all tasks it would be useful to do conversationally.

are you REALLY sure you want that?

how much fuel there is is a quick glance into the dash, and you can control precisely the radio volume without even looking.

'turn up the volume', 'turn down the volume a little bit', 'a bit more',...

and then a radio ad going 'get yourself a 3 pack of the new magic wipers...' and car wipers going off.

id hate conversational ui on my car.

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2. brookst ◴[01 Apr 25 12:46 UTC] No.43546133[source]▶
It’s less common now that car controls have somewhat standardized, but I’m old enough that I remember when rental cars were a pain because it would start raining and you couldn’t find the windshield wipers.

Conversational interfaces are great for rarely used features or when the user doesn’t know how to do something. For repetitive, common tasks they’re terrible.

But nobody is using ChatGPT for repetitive tasks. In fact the whole LLM revolution seems to be about letting users accomplish tasks without having to learn how to do them. Which I know some people look down on, but it’s the literal definition of management (which, to be fair, some people also look down on).

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3. notnullorvoid ◴[01 Apr 25 13:59 UTC] No.43546878[source]▶
If the choice for controls is touchscreen vs conversational, conversational wins by a mile. However if physical buttons and dials are an option there's really no competing with that.

I wish car manufacturers stopped with the touchscreen bullshit, but it seems more likely that they'll try to offset the terrible experience with voice controls.

4. ryandrake ◴[01 Apr 25 18:33 UTC] No.43550036[source]▶
> It’s less common now that car controls have somewhat standardized, but I’m old enough that I remember when rental cars were a pain because it would start raining and you couldn’t find the windshield wipers.

This is a problem of standardization across manufacturers, not something inherent in physical controls. I never have a problem using the steering wheel in a rental car because they're all the same.

You'd have the same problem with voice interfaces: For some rental cars, turning on the wipers would be "Turn on the wipers". For others, you'd have to say "Activate the wipers." For others, "Enable the windshield wipers." There is no way manufacturers will be capable of standardizing on a single phrase.

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5. pydry ◴[03 Apr 25 16:38 UTC] No.43572210{3}[source]▶
That's kinda the point. Previously they couldnt but with an LLM driven conversational interface they wouldnt have to standardize - all of those phrases would turn on the wipers.