Expanding access to Opal, our no-code AI mini-app builder(blog.google)
blog.google
Expanding access to Opal, our no-code AI mini-app builder
https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/opal-expansion/
28 comments
Whatever this product is, it shows what an org can achieve when staff care only about promotions.
Can't fault Google employees - the software retirement village is comfy.
But it's a big opportunity cost for society.
Can't fault Google employees - the software retirement village is comfy.
But it's a big opportunity cost for society.
The example they show... generating a garbage AI generated blog.
What about jules.google.com ? Are these competing products?
This is a no-code app building framework, Jules is a coding agent that will write whatever you ask it to, so, no. You could use them to achieve the same result, but they are for very different purposes and target audiences.
This was a garbage product compared to n8n
I can smell its sunset already.
Seems like cool framework, but I'm bothered by the example image around having AI research and generate a blog post. This is exactly the sort of thing I don't want.
google as a product company is pretty lame these days. its too bad because i know without a doubt some incredibly talent and intelligent people work there. But maybe in the past 10 years? or so. LAME
Name one successful no-code solution. Not snark. I'm serious. Give me examples. In my experience, these no-code tools either die being too simple or live long enough to be patched into fully fledged visual programming languages. At which point the promised simplicity is gone. Idk, maybe with AI it's different.
Substance Designer / Painter, Blender Nodes, TouchDesigner, DaVinci Resolve Fusion, etc.
That whole space is full of node-based tools that people build careers on.
That whole space is full of node-based tools that people build careers on.
Really depends on the scope of the solution; a lot of web development has gone no-code through the use of frameworks and platforms like Wix, Unbounce, Squarespace, Shopify, Gumroad, etc. Like it's crazy to think, but 15 years ago if you were a person with a single widget you wanted to sell over the internet (even a digital widget with no shipping logistics!) it was a big hassle that involved a lot of programming and hooking up various APIs. Now you can get a full e-commerce site with analytics and payments integrated fairly easily with basically no technical knowledge.
The counter-argument is that these tools are too narrowly scoped, but I think that's exactly what made them successful; their "no-code" tools provided a solution for a common problem.
Ultimately I agree with what you're getting at. There's never been a successful no-code, or even low-code, replacement for general purpose programming, and there never will be.
The counter-argument is that these tools are too narrowly scoped, but I think that's exactly what made them successful; their "no-code" tools provided a solution for a common problem.
Ultimately I agree with what you're getting at. There's never been a successful no-code, or even low-code, replacement for general purpose programming, and there never will be.
Fair enough. Those website builders have their place. I'm rather thinking of something like NodeRed where you specify control flow. But with boxes and arrows instead of code. Which is also what this Google product seems to do.
Replit
Unreal Engine’s Blueprints
Node Red, N8N, and Zapier I think are the biggest ones. I think the cool idea of AI implemented no code is, in theory, you can add a new node - tell the AI what to do, and it can build custom logic to do whatever it is that you want with the input.
Thats probably verging on too high of a complexity for end users, but if you can obfuscate the black box and have it work well enough, it can definitely be big.
Thats probably verging on too high of a complexity for end users, but if you can obfuscate the black box and have it work well enough, it can definitely be big.
Visual graph languages are in some ways even superior to code because it’s really hard to express a state machine in an easily readable fashion with code.
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Most of us probably agree, but can you please not post unsubstantive comments to HN? We want curious conversation here.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
living in the EU feels like living in the Stone Age
If you think a node-based editor makes a society modern, you have no idea what you are talking about, and you are foolish enough to believe this is what progress looks like. Not to discredit OAI, but you are just a victim of their marketing, chasing the next thing, which is merely an illusion of innovation, and it works because it fills your lack of true belonging. Do as you wish, you are a free consumer after all, but don’t go on the internet and discredit other people, their work and contribution, just because you’re are pathetic bystander yourself.
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At least you are getting chat control.
Nobody in the stone age voted to live in the stone age, ignoring all warnings that their vote would produce a stone age.
Or like there is an expectation companies will treat your information with respect and act with integrity. It is unfortunate that that causes companies to have to think for longer about how they will act before they do.
> It is unfortunate that that causes companies to have to think for longer
It is basic market dynamics that the harder you make it to enter a market, the more reluctant entrants will be. Whether the regulation that makes market entry more difficult is "good" or "bad" is simply irrelevant.
It is basic market dynamics that the harder you make it to enter a market, the more reluctant entrants will be. Whether the regulation that makes market entry more difficult is "good" or "bad" is simply irrelevant.
OpenAI tried without real regulation and we see how that turned out.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/13/microsoft-acquires-lobe-a-...