Statsig aims to democratize access to advanced tooling for all companies, inspired by the sophisticated workflows of big tech companies like Facebook and Google.
Ask UI automates interactions with user interfaces using AI and natural language, bridging the gap between being a programmer and enabling non-technical users to automate tasks.
Deep dives
The inception and mission of Statsig
Statsig was founded by VG Raji, who previously worked at Facebook for 10 years. Raji was inspired by the robust engineering culture at Facebook and wanted to distill the tools and practices that made Facebook successful into a unified platform that could benefit all companies. Statsig aims to help companies ship new features faster and smarter while also being able to measure the impact and make data-informed decisions.
The challenge of tooling for smaller companies
Many engineers who have experience working at big companies like Facebook or Google get used to sophisticated tooling and workflows that are not easily accessible to smaller companies. Raji recognized this gap and wanted to bring the same level of sophistication to all companies, especially those who cannot invest heavily in developing their own tools. The goal is to democratize access to advanced tooling so that all companies can benefit from it.
Solving UI automation challenges
Ask UI is a company that aims to automate interactions with user interfaces using AI and natural language. The technology involves taking screenshots of applications, using AI models to detect elements such as buttons and text fields, and then using natural language instructions to automate actions on the interface. Ask UI's approach focuses on creating a bridging gap between being a programmer and describing automation tasks in natural language, making it more accessible to non-technical users.
Challenges and future directions for Ask UI
One challenge for Ask UI is providing support for a wide range of platforms, but the company has been using AI models that can detect and interact with various user interface elements, making it adaptable across different systems. Looking ahead, Ask UI plans to leverage large language models to automate tasks that involve unstructured data, such as extracting information from PDFs. They also aim to make their technology more compliant with security standards and provide flexibility for users to execute automations locally without sharing sensitive information.
Dominik Klotz from askui joins Daniel and Chris to discuss the automation of UI, and how AI empowers them to automate any use case on any operating system. Along the way, the trio explore various approaches and the integration of generative AI, large language models, and computer vision.
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