Enough AI Copilots, We Need AI HUDs

Summary

In my opinion, one of the best critiques of modern AI design comes from a 1992 talk by the researcher Mark Weiser where he ranted against “copilot” as a metaphor for AI. This was 33 years ago, but it’s still incredibly relevant for anyone designing with AI. Weiser’s rant Weiser was speaking at an MIT Media Lab event on “interface agents”. They were grappling with many of the same issues we’re discussing in 2025: how to make a personal assistant that automates tasks for you and knows your full context. They even had a human “butler” on stage representing an AI agent. Everyone was super excited about this… except Weiser. He was opposed to the whole idea of agents! He gave this example: how should a computer help you fly a plane and avoid collisions? The agentic option is a “copilot” — a virtual human who you talk with to get help flying the plane. If you’re about to run into another plane it might yell at you “collision, go right and down!” Weiser offered a different option: design the cockpit so that the human pilot is naturally aware of their surroundings. In his words: “You’ll no more run into another airplane than you would try to walk through a wall.” Weiser’s goal was an “invisible computer"—not an assistant that grabs your attention, but a computer that fades into the background and becomes "an extension of [your] body”. Weiser’s 1992 slide on airplane interfaces HUDs There’s a tool in modern planes that I think nicely illustrates Weiser’s philosophy: the Head-Up Display (HUD), which overlays flight info like the horizon and altitude on a transparent display directly in the pilot’s field of view. A HUD feels completely different from a copilot! You don’t talk to it. It’s literally part invisible—you just become naturally aware of more things, as if you had magic eyes. Designing HUDs OK enough analogies. What might a HUD feel like in modern software design? One familiar example is spellcheck. Think about it: spellcheck isn’t designed as a “virtual collaborator” ...