Show HN: I built an OS that is pure AI

(pneuma.computer)

20 points | by evanbarke 13 hours ago

8 comments

  • fractallyte 4 minutes ago
    It's a fascinating paradigm – as though it dropped here out of some future.

    However, I'd never use it. Reason: having everything dynamically created JIT means there's a trade-off somewhere else; in this case, it's energy consumption. I'd rather "cache" applications (ie. have them as installable software, which has been built just once) than endlessly recreate software from scratch each time, with all the energy usage that entails.

  • owenpalmer 6 hours ago
    > Currently it runs as a desktop app on Linux, macOS, and Windows

    Does that mean it's not actually an OS?

    • ingatorp 1 hour ago
      I mean Chrome OS started as a browser only OS. So theoretically it can be an OS.
  • erelong 2 hours ago
    One critique is that I think it might be more efficient to just make use of existing software for some of these things rather than generate them on the fly (for something for example like a text editor), but I guess that will depend on how costly it is to run AI programs in the future (if it becomes much cheaper, then I could see your concept being taken up by more people)
    • evanbarke 36 minutes ago
      Yes that is definitely still gonna be necessary and it's why I build on a store where people can upload their apps/agents. There is a loose community section and in the backlog I have work around offering an sdk and official store for established companies to ship pneuma apps.
  • nextaccountic 2 hours ago
    > the UX

    For this to be practical you really need to build things iteratively and asking the user questions, rather than attempting at one shot half assed ideas

    Also most people are better explaining details with voice rather than text.

    • evanbarke 35 minutes ago
      Voice is a great idea! On the backlog. Also pneuma already supports iteration/edits. You can say "edit my pong game so the paddles are pink" and it's smart enough to do it.
  • bensyverson 8 hours ago
    I think this is the way things are ultimately going (software as ephemerally generated based on your preferences), but at the moment, I can't see myself using these generated apps. Maybe it's just an aesthetic thing—have you experimented with personalized theming?
    • evanbarke 32 minutes ago
      Yeah you can edit them however you like. I asked it to make a game with a lion fighting a bulldog and it could even doing that :D
  • spl757 1 hour ago
    How did you solve the problem of hallucinations?
    • evanbarke 33 minutes ago
      I've built a list of common gotchas in the generation prompts. Also if the compilation fails it falls back to opus with the error message and code and can try again twice.
  • subdomain 11 hours ago
    Seems like a cool idea—I'm always game to try new operating systems! Recently been playing around with Playbit (https://playbit.app/)

    Pneuma reminds me a little bit of Yansu AI, a project I saw recently on HN that proactively builds apps with AI (https://yansu.app/)

    • evanbarke 11 hours ago
      Thanks! Playbit is a cool project, I've followed it. The key difference with Pneuma is that the programs themselves are AI-generated at runtime. There's no toolchain the user interacts with, no editor, no compiler invocation. You describe what you want and the system handles everything from code generation through compilation to execution in one pass. Yansu is interesting too but it's a web app builder. Pneuma runs native GPU-rendered agents in WASM sandboxes on the desktop, so you can build things like real-time games and data visualizers with keyboard/mouse input, not just web UIs. The closest analogy is probably a microkernel where every userspace process is conjured by an LLM instead of installed from a package manager.
      • subdomain 7 hours ago
        That makes sense—I think it's really interesting to see the possibilities of new software created purely by AI! I'm happy to offer feedback, my email is micah.blachman@gmail.com
        • evanbarke 31 minutes ago
          Feel free to sign up at pneuma.computer you can try for free. You feedback would be greatly appreciated
      • DarthCeltic85 6 hours ago
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  • tc1989tc 6 hours ago
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