Why AI Apps Still Feel Broken with Pete Koomen
Description
Most AI apps still feel clunky, generic, or oddly off-tone. Pete Koomen thinks he knows why — and he’s calling it the “horseless carriage” problem. Just like early cars mimicked carriages, today’s AI products too often copy outdated software models instead of rethinking from first principles.
Pete, a General Partner at Y Combinator and co-founder of Optimizely, joins us to break down his viral essay AI Horseless Carriages. We talk about why editable system prompts are critical, how app design is holding AI back, and why user-controlled agents could unlock far more powerful workflows than today’s one-size-fits-all experiences.
We also covered WhatsApp’s 3B user milestone, Mach Industries’ new funding round, a major App Store ruling against Apple, and Anthropic’s Claude integrations.
United States
