UX issues aside (running commands directly is worrisome), that example with ffmpeg is striking. That's really well chosen example of a program I (and many others I believe) dread using directly. Having the computer come up with the "correct" ffmpeg incantation based on the high level description of the goal is really tempting. Though as with the other exampmles, I worry they are subtly incorrect.
I think/hope that ChatGPT will force users to come up with better UI for their programs (including their CLI programs). If it is easy to tell ChatGPT to run ffmpeg than running it yourself then ffmpeg's UI is not optimal.
As we have already realised in other industries (e.g. in the auto industry) is that text-based or voice-based input is clearly less efficient (worse?) than a good UI. If your UI is worse than free text, then time to improve it.
Rather than using this app, I simply have a shell function called generate that I can call anytime with a string. Mostly I use it for ffmpeg commands or occasionally asking it to explain something. For the ffmpeg commands I am finding it gets them wrong a good number of times and I have to them use a browser and search for the correct usage. It’s never too far off but it’s wrong enough. Although in my case I think I am actually using free credits on da-vinci - for what it’s worth.
The `ffmpeg` example is unsubtly incorrect. `ls -1` sorts by name. The system reported finding the "latest downloaded MP4 file" but actually grabbed one essentially at random.
