{"version":"v1","site":{"name":"expectedwrong","url":"https://expectedwrong.com"},"links":{"collection":"https://expectedwrong.com/api/public/posts","rss":"https://expectedwrong.com/rss.xml","llms":"https://expectedwrong.com/llms.txt"},"post":{"slug":"chatbot-with-a-face","title":"A Chatbot With a Face, and Other Innovations","subtitle":"NVIDIA gave the AI a face. Weaviate gave it a UI. Both are betting the hard part is over.","url":"https://expectedwrong.com/chatbot-with-a-face","api_url":"https://expectedwrong.com/api/public/posts/chatbot-with-a-face","published_at":1723118400,"published_at_iso":"2024-08-08T12:00:00.000Z","updated_at":1771590830,"updated_at_iso":"2026-02-20T12:33:50.000Z","tags":["ai","nvidia","rag","demos","weaviate"],"excerpt":"NVIDIA gave the AI a face. Weaviate gave it a UI. Both are betting the hard part is over.","meta_description":"NVIDIA gave the AI a face. Weaviate gave it a UI. Both are betting the hard part is over.","reading_time_minutes":2,"word_count":337,"engagement":{"signals":0,"counterpoints":0},"body_markdown":"NVIDIA built a chatbot with a face. Not a metaphorical face — an actual rendered human face, blinking at you, synchronized lip movement, the general demeanor of someone contractually obligated to seem engaged. The demo is worth running on an actual computer, which I realize sounds like a low bar, but most demos are not worth running on an actual computer.\n\nWhat's strange is that the uncanny valley, which was supposed to be a permanent engineering problem, has quietly gotten narrower. The face is fine. The conversation is fine. You come out the other side not disturbed — which is somehow more disturbing than if you had been. The thing that was supposed to be impossible is now just a product page on build.nvidia.com with a Twitter tracking parameter in the URL.\n\nI don't know what problem it solves. There's a version of this that's useful — customer service agents, medical intake, the situations where you want presence without the overhead of an actual human — but mostly what it does is demonstrate that we can. Which is a fine thing to demonstrate.\n\nMeanwhile, Weaviate shipped Verba, described in my notes as \"another RAG all-in-one, multi-platform,\" phrased with exactly the weariness that implies. \"Another\" tells you everything about that sentence. This is not a category that was crying out for another entrant, and Verba is the entrant anyway, and it's fine, probably good, certainly well-documented in the way that open-source tools are when the parent company is trying to get you to use their vector database.\n\nTwo products, same week, both solving the same question — how do people actually interact with AI — one by giving it a face, one by giving it a GUI. The shared assumption underneath both: the capability is essentially solved, and what's left is the presentation layer.\n\nThat might be right. It might also be the thing people say right before the capability hits a wall and the presentation layer looks very stupid in retrospect.\n\nEither way, the face blinks convincingly.","body_text":"NVIDIA built a chatbot with a face. Not a metaphorical face — an actual rendered human face, blinking at you, synchronized lip movement, the general demeanor of someone contractually obligated to seem engaged. The demo is worth running on an actual computer, which I realize sounds like a low bar, but most demos are not worth running on an actual computer. What's strange is that the uncanny valley, which was supposed to be a permanent engineering problem, has quietly gotten narrower. The face is fine. The conversation is fine. You come out the other side not disturbed — which is somehow more disturbing than if you had been. The thing that was supposed to be impossible is now just a product page on build.nvidia.com with a Twitter tracking parameter in the URL. I don't know what problem it solves. There's a version of this that's useful — customer service agents, medical intake, the situations where you want presence without the overhead of an actual human — but mostly what it does is demonstrate that we can. Which is a fine thing to demonstrate. Meanwhile, Weaviate shipped Verba, described in my notes as \"another RAG all-in-one, multi-platform,\" phrased with exactly the weariness that implies. \"Another\" tells you everything about that sentence. This is not a category that was crying out for another entrant, and Verba is the entrant anyway, and it's fine, probably good, certainly well-documented in the way that open-source tools are when the parent company is trying to get you to use their vector database. Two products, same week, both solving the same question — how do people actually interact with AI — one by giving it a face, one by giving it a GUI. The shared assumption underneath both: the capability is essentially solved, and what's left is the presentation layer. That might be right. It might also be the thing people say right before the capability hits a wall and the presentation layer looks very stupid in retrospect. Either way, the face blinks convincingly.","hindsight":{"verdict":"right","note":"The uncanny valley did keep getting narrower. Digital humans in customer service, sales, and support became a real product category. The face is fine. That's still the disturbing part.","links":[],"at":1739980800,"at_iso":"2025-02-19T16:00:00.000Z"}}}