Screenless startup: The new philosophy of AI applications
God Translation Bureau is a compilation team under 36Kr, focusing on fields such as technology, business, the workplace, and life, with a particular emphasis on introducing new technologies, new ideas, and new trends from abroad.
Editor's note: From capturing attention to returning attention, AI is ending the "screen tax." The highest realm of a good product is to allow you to use it and then move on, with a tacit understanding. This article is from a compilation.
Software in the past decade aimed to capture attention. Software in the next decade will aim to return attention to users.
Currently, there is an undercurrent among top developers in Silicon Valley. Everyone is starting to pursue a simple, almost analog-era experience. However, the capabilities of these products are more powerful than ever before.
Take ChatGPT as an example - it is one of the fastest-growing consumer products in history. But what is it in essence? Just a blank box and a cursor. Its interface is almost empty. However, the underlying power is one of the most profound advancements in the field of computing we've ever seen.
The deeper you explore AI, the more extreme this pattern becomes. AI agents can make phone calls, schedule appointments, and conduct negotiations - and we've never seen them move the cursor or fill out forms. Their capabilities are completely invisible. So much so that we have to give them personalities to understand what they can actually do: such as Claude, Devin, and Alice.
Even the hardware field is tilting in this direction. It is reported that OpenAI is developing a consumer device the size of a pocket, with context awareness and possibly no screen.
The philosophy of measuring a good product is changing. When we say that the next wave of startups will completely abandon screens, it's not meant literally (although it might actually happen). Instead, it means we're moving towards products whose "magic" lies in allowing you to set them up and then move on. This kind of software can understand tacitly and is even a pleasure to use.
Leading AI companies at the application layer already have a core understanding: the next generation of products will win by no longer needing to capture attention, rather than by capturing it.
This is a huge shift. It will change the way we measure success, change our work patterns, and may even change society as a whole. In this article, we'll explore the meaning and origin of this philosophy. In the next one, we'll delve into specific strategies for building products in this new model.
Technology tends to gradually "disappear"
In 2014, the Harvard Innovation Lab made a wonderful demonstration of this concept. The video starts with a desk from the 1980s, filled with computers, calendars, fax machines, etc. As time passes, each item on the desk disappears one by one - replaced by application software on the computer desktop.
We're already on this track. Technology is becoming easier to use - the "friction" we feel when using technology today is surprisingly low. (That's why those economic sectors with high friction, the so - called "backward" industries, have become the best breeding ground for AI startups.)
Invisibility starts with simplicity.
"Extreme simplicity x extreme efficiency" is the secret to creating winning products. This was true even before the era of AI began. Back then, Google stood out in the chaotic portal wars with an extremely simple homepage that supported a revolutionary and extremely powerful search engine behind it.
AI allows us to go even further, designing product experiences with a forward - thinking mindset - making them so simple that they truly "disappear."
Why? Because the emergence of AI marks the first time that software can truly execute complex actions without human supervision.
Building invisible technology
So, how can we use AI - and even software - to regain attention? The history of Silicon Valley actually provides us with a roadmap.
In 1991, Mark Weiser, later known as the "philosopher of Silicon Valley," predicted the arrival of the era of "calm technology." His vision was that technology should take a backseat in life, rather than forcefully taking the spotlight.
Weiser outlined four principles:
The purpose of a computer is to help you accomplish other things
The best computer is a quiet, invisible servant
A computer should expand your unconscious realm
Technology should create a sense of calm
He envisioned that we're entering the "third wave" of computing: from mainframes to personal computers (where humans and machines "awkwardly stare at each other across the desk"), and then to ubiquitous computing, the stage where technology completely disappears.
When Steve Jobs visited the Xerox PARC in 1979, he caught a glimpse of fragments of this vision. The original intention of the iPhone was to try to free us from our desks. But even Jobs couldn't completely break out of the second wave. We just replaced the desktop screen with another screen - a portable one. The "attention tax" we have to pay is still high.
AI finally makes Weiser's vision possible because AI can execute tasks when you turn away. It can quietly listen behind the scenes of a conversation, summarize information in real - time, and continue to work while you're asleep. For the first time, we have technology that can still be valuable even if you're not staring at it.
The interface can finally become invisible - a blank box, a voice command, and perhaps ultimately no interface at all - because the intelligence behind it is handling all the work.
As these technologies emerge, a key concern is privacy. The power of ambient computing lies in the fact that it doesn't require continuous supervision, but the price is a reduction in user exit mechanisms. Many entrepreneurs deeply involved in this field are well aware of this, and in most cases, it may not be as serious as it seems.
We're still in the early stages. Most entrepreneurs haven't developed products in this way yet. But the most perceptive ones have sensed this trend. They're designing capabilities that aim to expand your unconscious, rather than colonize your consciousness. This is a philosophy, not just a hardware form.
Create products that are so excellent that people forget they exist. They're intelligent enough not to require supervision; they're so valuable that people choose them not because they can't look away, but because after using them, they can finally look up and observe the world.
The migration of complexity
The simpler and more invisible a product appears on the surface, the more complex its underlying foundation becomes.
The iPhone replaced dozens of physical devices. Suddenly, all your basic needs could be met with just one device. What was the result? We started dealing with much more complex matters than before. We can live - stream to millions of people, run a business with the phone in our pocket, watch a live concert from the other side of the world and instantly share it with friends.
This pattern is: when technology handles simple trivial matters in an invisible way, human capabilities migrate upwards. We'll pursue more complex ambitions and invest our cognitive resources in higher - order problems.
AI accelerates this pattern to an unprecedented extreme.
Imagine what's possible when you no longer need to supervise technology:
You can assemble a team of AI agents to work around the clock without your direct supervision, thus running a company. You just set the direction, and they handle the execution. You review, and they iterate. The complexity of running a company still exists, but the boring trivial matters in management disappear.
The time you spend in the car, when you're on a journey but don't need to drive, can become time for deep work, deep rest, or deep conversation, because AI takes over the tasks that used to require your hands and eyes.
When you have a system that can customize a perfect course for your knowledge gaps and deliver it when you're most receptive, the learning effect will increase exponentially. The difficulty of mastering a field still remains, but the inefficiency of random exploration will disappear.
This isn't about eliminating resistance to make us lazy - that's a concern many people have about the rise of AI. Resistance for the sake of resistance benefits no one; it just wastes resources with little return. But when solving complex problems, the right amount of challenge is the key to promoting progress and learning.
Our goal is to eliminate unnecessary resistance so that we can take on more difficult things, rather than struggle with boring trivial matters.
The dream of "calm technology" has never been to keep us in front of the screen longer. Instead, it's to create systems that can expand your unconscious mind and then allow you to continue doing what you were doing before the phone rang.
All this will become a reality when products stop demanding attention and start expanding human capabilities.
Make the product feel "like a walk in the woods"
Imagine the daily routine of a founder in 2028.
When she wakes up, the AI has already sorted through the overnight messages, marked three that need her attention, drafted responses for another twelve, and scheduled two calls based on the time negotiated with the other party. She doesn't even need to open her email.
During her commute, she discusses the product roadmap with the AI. The AI has analyzed user feedback, competitor trends, and technological limitations. It asks some clarifying questions. By the time she reaches her destination, a strategic draft is ready. She only needs to spend 20 minutes refining the core ideas, while the AI has already completed three hours of work.
At the investor meeting, she is fully engaged. No computer, no notes. The AI listens beside her, remembers everything, and links this conversation with the relevant context of the other 40 conversations she's had this month. After the meeting, the AI will update the CRM system, send follow - up emails, and adjust the financing strategy based on the captured signals.
The technology is invisible. But her company is running faster than it did five years ago. She can make more informed decisions because she has more mental space. She has less stress because she's not drowning in a sea of notifications. She's more engaged in every conversation because she doesn't need to be distracted by remembering every detail.
The complexity of running a company hasn't decreased. If anything, it has increased - she's taking on more ambitious goals than before. However, the "attention tax" she pays has dropped to zero.
This is the world we're building: there's more information than ever before, more possibilities than ever before, and the mental burden is constantly decreasing. Although technology plays a peak role in company operations, the interaction between people, colleagues, partners, and tools has become more human.
"When walking in the woods, we have more information at our fingertips than any computer system," Weiser wrote in Scientific American in 1991. "However, people find walking in the woods relaxing, while using a computer is frustrating. Machines that adapt to the human environment, rather than forcing humans into the machine environment, will make using a computer as refreshing as a walk in the woods."
Technology has always been evolving towards "invisibility." AI completes the final piece of this pattern. It makes technology disappear from the experience level.
The power is there, and the capabilities are extraordinary. For ambitious entrepreneurs, all this is within reach.
Translator: boxi.