[HN Gopher] Show HN: CopilotKit- Build in-app AI chatbots and AI...
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       Show HN: CopilotKit- Build in-app AI chatbots and AI-powered
       textareas
        
       Author : swiftlyTyped
       Score  : 131 points
       Date   : 2023-12-06 15:35 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | swiftlyTyped wrote:
       | Open-Source (MIT).
       | 
       | If you'd like to contribute to the repo, or to the open copilot
       | protocol, please join the GitHub/Discord!
        
       | squirrel23 wrote:
       | Pretty cool tech!
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Thank you!
        
       | nathan_tarbert wrote:
       | This is great, if I understand correctly I just inject the hook -
       | <CopilotPortal /> ?
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Thanks!
         | 
         | And Pretty much! You have to wrap the app (or the part you want
         | copilot in) with a <CopilotProvider /> - this is UI-agnostic,
         | business logic only. Then there are a few customizable UI
         | providers you can use, or you can just build your own if
         | needed.
         | 
         | If you check it out do let me know what you think!
        
       | vecplane wrote:
       | Cool concept! Would this work with React Native, now or in the
       | future?
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | We're starting with react web, planning to expand from there to
         | other surfaces, including React Native.
         | 
         | I suspect the gap from the current version, to React Native
         | support is rather small. It's open-source, so feel free to open
         | an issue so that it can get upvoted/prioritized, (or even
         | better, you can work on it too ;) )
        
           | htsh wrote:
           | Cool! Any plans for Svelte?
        
       | dschofie wrote:
       | Super cool! Heads up: when clicking "website" next to "Join our
       | Discord" on your repo, it looks like the link is broken
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Thanks for the pointer, fixed!
        
       | netsharc wrote:
       | Feels like Microsoft might send you a letter soon about the
       | nane...
       | 
       | How about FirstOfficerKit, but that seems very far away from AI
       | if one doesn't get that it's a synonym for copilot
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Yeah, I hope that doesn't happen.
         | 
         | That said the concept of a copilot is pretty generic, so
         | hopefully we can peacefully coexist.
         | 
         | They've doubled down on the Copilot naming after the project
         | was well underway, and I don't really want to rename it in
         | anticipation of trouble that may never materialize
        
         | petercooper wrote:
         | It feels like MS is already treating it like a generic term. I
         | think I saw a Kevin Scott article recently where he kept
         | referring to "copilots" as well. The term is being so widely
         | used right now that they'd need to defend it quickly if they
         | even have a trademark. (Looking at the USPTO database, MS
         | applied for a trademark for "Microsoft Copilot" in September
         | then filed an express abandonment a few days later.)
        
         | dontupvoteme wrote:
         | The term is just blatantly lifted from an entire other
         | industry, can you really trademark that?
        
       | aragonite wrote:
       | Relately: I've noticed that if I use ChatGPT in Microsoft Edge, I
       | get (sometimes very) helpful co-pilot style completions in the
       | input text area. Is that an Edge-exclusive feature? And how does
       | CopilotKit compare?
        
         | sdrinf wrote:
         | So, wait, edge posts non-submitted content you've entered into
         | textboxes to a cloud llm? or is this running in your browser?
        
           | aragonite wrote:
           | I now think it's likely I misunderstood what the feature
           | involves and that it is actually way more limited than I
           | thought compared to CopilotKit (perhaps it's little different
           | from Gmail's Smart Compose), but this is a quick-and-dirty
           | screenshot:
           | 
           | https://imgur.com/a/FwZu6f7
        
             | golergka wrote:
             | This looks like a very rudimentary completion, almost
             | Markov chain level. I don't think it requires sending user
             | data to any remote servers, it could have easily been done
             | on the client.
        
               | croes wrote:
               | The question isn't how it could be done but how it is
               | done.
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | I didn't know ChatGPT + Edge did that, pretty cool!
         | 
         | And yes, with CopilotKit you can implement the same to any text
         | area in any app, that would work on any browser (+ other key
         | features).
         | 
         | I can tell you that CopilotTextarea works very, very well if
         | you give it the right context - but since I hadn't known about
         | Edge's feature, I can't compare.
         | 
         | Even long term, I think this is functionality that will be
         | better offered by the app itself rather than the browser - bc
         | the app can control the relevant context beyond what's visible
         | on the screen (e.g. RAG on users' backend state), customize the
         | prompt, and potentially even design dedicated LLM chains (as
         | needed).
        
         | explaininjs wrote:
         | Funny you find those useful, I disabled them fairly quickly.
         | 
         | That said, prior to disabling them I'd actually use it the
         | opposite way: If I'm entering prose into a box and the AI has a
         | very good understanding of what I'm about to say, that's a good
         | indication I'm not saying anything remotely interesting and I
         | should either change direction or abandon my comment entirely.
        
       | ulidabess wrote:
       | Awesome project. I was looking through the Github and if I
       | understand correctly, then it's plugged in to the OpenAI API by
       | default?
       | 
       | Is there an option for using other LLMs with it?
        
         | ugh123 wrote:
         | Being able to plug this into Google Docs using your own local
         | LLM would be very interesting...
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Correct.
         | 
         | The default backend implementation uses OpenAI, but you can use
         | any LLM pretty easily.
        
       | BonoboIO wrote:
       | So this has nothing to do with Copilot from GitHub?
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Correct, Copilot here stands for AI "second brain" that "co-
         | pilots" the app alongside the user.
         | 
         | (the abstract idea behind GitHub Copilot).
        
       | jay-barronville wrote:
       | Cool idea!
        
       | mikigraf wrote:
       | Amazing product! How does the connection to LLMs works? Bring
       | your own LLM/API key?
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Yes, exactly.
         | 
         | And thanks for the kind words!
        
       | throw03172019 wrote:
       | Looks fantastic but does it require using your endpoints for
       | inference? We have strict data requirements and use Azure OpenAI
       | for security.
        
         | croes wrote:
         | Azure and security in one sentence.
         | 
         | Good one.
        
           | throw03172019 wrote:
           | Yes but They sign BAA for HIPAA. OpenAI does not last we
           | checked.
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Good question!
         | 
         | No, we actually don't even offer our own endpoints for
         | inference yet, precisely because of the data concerns you site.
         | 
         | Right now it's self-host only, but it's very _very_ easy to
         | self-host, and we 'll keep it that way for every feature
         | touching user data.
        
       | zerkten wrote:
       | Why use the Copilot name? It's confusing because you seem to have
       | an agnostic product.
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | It's a fair point :)
         | 
         | AI Copilot started out synonymous with code completion, it
         | still means that for many.
         | 
         | Our bet was this meaning would broaden with time.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | Now that it's firmly entrenched as Microsoft branding you may
           | want to reconsider. Soon, people searching for "AI Copilot"
           | aren't going to be able to find you.
        
       | _mme wrote:
       | Nice project! I made Beak.js which has a similar way to connect a
       | language model to the UI via React hooks:
       | https://github.com/mme/beakjs
        
         | jakiestfu wrote:
         | I'm really liking the agnosticism with Beak.js. Would love to
         | read a blog post about the power of that or examples of
         | useBeakFunction use-cases
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | Great minds think alike!
         | 
         | Our `useMakeCopilotActionable` is similar to your
         | `useBeakFunction` and `useMakeCopilotReadable` is analogous to
         | your `useBeakInfo`.
         | 
         | I don't know how much farther you're planning to take things or
         | if it's a demo/hobby project.
         | 
         | But real talk, if you're excited about this space and would
         | like to explore joining our team, I'd love to chat and take it
         | from there.
         | 
         | atai at copilotkit dot ai
        
       | xixixao wrote:
       | Here's an open source alternative with context retrieval and
       | message storage: https://github.com/get-convex/convex-ai-chat
       | 
       | (there are also versions using Assistants API and LangChain,
       | linked from here: https://stack.convex.dev/ai-chat-using-openai-
       | assistants-api)
        
         | swiftlyTyped wrote:
         | CopilotKit itself is open-source, and supports assistants API +
         | langchain :) https://github.com/CopilotKit/CopilotKit
        
       | NoraCodes wrote:
       | If I see functionality like this on a company's website, I am
       | going to find someone else to do business with about 80% of the
       | time.
        
         | asadalt wrote:
         | why? Doesn't this generally help you write faster?
        
           | Racing0461 wrote:
           | Any chatbot/AI that i can't say "please refund this order due
           | to product being damaged here is a pic" and it can't do a
           | refund on its own is worthless. Not because i care about
           | refunds, but if the bot can't do that, chances are it can't
           | do anything real and its just trained on a bunch of docs and
           | is worthless otherwise.
           | 
           | It's also 10x worse when the website has a green circle on it
           | like teams/zoom showing it as "online" and makes you feel
           | like you are actually talking to someone.
        
           | varispeed wrote:
           | It's a waste of time.
           | 
           | Chat interface is used to talk to people. If you talk to a
           | machine, there is no point to mimic human behaviour,
           | especially when current iterations of AI can't reason. There
           | should be a better way to do this.
           | 
           | Like 90% of the time I want to chat to customer rep, because
           | I want to let them now there were missing items in the
           | delivery and I want re-delivery or refund. That could be a
           | simple expert system with a few buttons. But businesses want
           | to discourage people from returning anything, so they are
           | building those time wasting widgets hoping a % of people give
           | up.
           | 
           | Like if my time costs PS200 per hour and the wrong delivery
           | was worth PS50, I am not going to spend more than 15 minutes
           | on this, unless it is critical to the business.
           | 
           | This has nothing to do with helping customers, but to save
           | money.
        
       | AYoung010 wrote:
       | Grow your OpenAI bill exponentially with this one easy trick!
       | 
       | In all seriousness -- looks nifty! Do you guys have any plans to
       | bring suggestion latency down from what's show in the demo?
        
       | geniium wrote:
       | Pretty cool idea
        
       | dfxm12 wrote:
       | Microsoft recently rebranded their chatbot offering to Copilot
       | Studio. Copilot is also the name of Microsoft's AI products.
       | 
       | It's hard enough keeping all of Microsoft's products with similar
       | names straight. I don't want to confuse other products with them,
       | too, unless, maybe, this is the point :)
        
       | itslennysfault wrote:
       | It'd be nice if this was more clearly labeled as a React plugin.
       | I saw "drop in replacement for <textarea>" and thought it was a
       | web component and only realized it was a react plugin after
       | reading further. Not a huge deal, but since it is a plugin and
       | not a stand-alone thing it might make sense to make that clear up
       | front.
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-06 23:00 UTC)