mcp servers, classpass, and my initial reaction
Disclaimer: I'm still in the "fuck AI, I don't want it"-camp, but I wanted to write on this protocol a bit, so sorry to readers who are sick of AI. But I think this specific conversation is particularly interesting.
Today I looked into what MCP (model context protocol) servers are, since my company built one for users to interact with our services. As I understand it, the very basic explanation is that these MCP servers expose a standardized API that LLMs will interact with to perform some CRUD operations. Essentially, things that you do on an app or website can be done by the LLMs you already use. Let's say for example Company Y sells Calendar App Z. Company Y could hire some developers to build an MCP server that will let a user use ChatGPT to create, edit, or delete a calendar event just by communicating with ChatGPT, instead of actually using Calendar App Z. Very basic example, but that's the gist.
Now, I just cancelled my Classpass free trial this week (Classpass is a gym class management app), but I noticed that when I cancelled my membership, it didn't delete my data (saved credit cards, profile information, etc). Which annoyed me because there was no "delete account" button on the website. I also coincidentally noticed that their chatbot was actually an LLM, so I wondered if I could just ask it to delete my data, so I did, and it deleted my data without question! After the conversation, I couldn't log into my account anymore and everything was wiped. Beautiful.
I think that is a good use-case for an MCP server. Just let me ask a chatbot to delete my account, and have it do the thing I asked without giving me a hard time or asking me to take a brief survey.
All that being said though, I still wonder if the world needs this. One could logically argue that I should just be able to click a button in the app to delete my account as well. I don't really need an AI chatbot to do it for me. And that argument applies to really anything else too: If I want to sign up for a class, check available classes in the San Diego area, or cancel a class that I'm too hungover to attend, I should be able to do all these things just fine in the app. Is the chatbot making me that much more productive?
There's also a conversation to be had data integrity and hygeiene. I don't want my Classpass data to be given to some random LLM. That seems insane, and at that rate, I'd would definitely prefer to perform actions through Classpass' own app or website.
Oh and obviously it takes an absorbent amount of power and resources to use an LLM chatbot over clicking a button on a website, but that argument goes without saying.
So, my initial reaction is that these MCP servers allowing LLMs to perform actions is cool technology at face-value, and I'm sure there's more complex use-cases where it would be handy. But I think most applications and websites don't really need this shit. Just make intuitive user experiences and give the user full control over their data. We've been doing this for like 20 years now, this isn't a new problem to solve.
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