(P)UGC in the AI Era

2025-04-28

Peter Kooman discussing AI Horseless Carriages:

I noticed something interesting the other day: I enjoy using AI to build software more than I enjoy using most AI applications — software built with AI. When I use AI to build software I feel like I can create almost anything I can imagine very quickly. AI feels like a power tool. It’s a lot of fun. Many AI apps don’t feel like that. Their AI features feel tacked-on and useless, even counter-productive.

I am beginning to suspect that these apps are the “horseless carriages” of the AI era. They’re bad because they mimic old ways of building software that unnecessarily constrain the AI models they’re built with. To illustrate what I mean by that, I’ll start with an example of a badly designed AI app.

Ben Thompson discussing Kooman's theory of AI Horseless Carriages:

Koomen’s critique is directed at all software makers, who need to get out of the mindset of doing everything for the user, and shift to enabling users to systemically solve their own problems

UGC markets in everything is where it's going. Whether it's at the interaction layer, the progression layer or the status layer - creating the conditions for users to 'systematically solve their own problems' or curate their own amusements is the design goal.