Re-imagining User Interfaces: Estonia’s Path to a Platform-Driven Future

The Future of User Interfaces: Beyond the Screen

User interfaces are often the most visible aspect of information systems, whether they come in the form of a web page, a mobile app, a voice assistant, or a plugin. But in reality, UIs are just a small part of the larger system. I'm a strong believer in the idea of disappearing graphical user interfaces - where platforms, rather than traditional interfaces, take center stage. We’ve seen this shift already with how Facebook transformed online forums, marketplaces, and web pages into something more integrated and less dependent on standalone sites.

Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have been a staple in our lives simply because there hasn't been a better alternative. But as generative AI continues to evolve, we’re beginning to see the resurgence of chat and voice interfaces. Remember those early text-based terminal games where you could only interact through words? We might be heading back to something similar, but far more advanced.

Creating effective UIs is tough. They need to cater to the user, the device, and the context in which they're used. No matter how sleek or intuitive a GUI is, its primary purpose remains the same: to convey information or offer a service (or enterntainment). However, with the advent of generative AI, we're on the brink of re-imagining how users interact with information systems.

Generative AI and the Role of RAG

While generative AI shows promise, it’s not without its flaws - most notably, its tendency to "hallucinate" facts. However, when combined with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), the reliability and accuracy of AI output significantly improve.

General-purpose language models can already handle common tasks like sentiment analysis or named entity recognition without needing much background knowledge. But for more complex, knowledge-intensive tasks, integrating external knowledge sources is crucial. This is where RAG shines. By combining an information retrieval component with a text generator, RAG ensures that the AI’s output is both relevant and up-to-date.

RAG works by retrieving a set of relevant documents - say, from a source like Wikipedia - based on the input it receives. These documents are then used as context for the AI to generate its final response. This approach allows RAG to adapt to evolving facts without requiring constant retraining of the underlying model. It’s a significant step forward in making AI-generated content more reliable, especially in dynamic fields where information changes rapidly.

Estonia's Digital Future: A Unified Platform for Government Services

In Estonia, we're already seeing some of these ideas in action with the development of Bürokratt, a governmental chatbot designed to simplify citizen access to services and information. However, progress has been slower than anticipated, and adoption has been more challenging than expected.

Rather than deploying custom solutions for every government service, imagine a platform where each system simply implements a predefined interface. This interface would define what the system does and which services it offers to citizens. For the user, the specifics of which system is handling their query are irrelevant; what matters is getting the information or service they need.

By integrating such a platform with Estonia's X-Road - a centrally managed Data Exchange Layer for secure, interoperable data exchange between information systems - we could create a smart, RAG-based interface that offers all governmental services from a single access point.

Bridging Strategy and Execution

Estonia has long been a pioneer in digital governance, with a robust IT strategy that has led to remarkable innovations like X-Road. However, it seems that we may be missing the link between strategy and execution that we had back in 2001 when these visions first became reality. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to ensure that our digital strategy is not just visionary but also executable, paving the way for the next generation of user interfaces and digital services.