why AI-based apps need concept design
A few weeks ago, we had a birthday bash for CSAIL, my lab at MIT, with short talks from all the investigators in the lab — about 60 of us! My talk was about the role that concepts will play in designing software apps that use AI as agents.
I told three stories about software failures, and explained how in each case they were due to conceptual design problems. Moving to AI-enabled apps, I described two ways in which AI agents might be integrated, and argued in either case, the agents would need to be trained with concept models. I closed with the idea of concept catalogs and how they could reduce the cost of obtaining these models.
When the ChatGPT craze started, I wondered for a moment if anyone would care about software design issues again. Now I'm realizing that LLMs might be the best thing that ever happened for software design...
As usual, comments very welcome.
Daniel