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Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by muzani on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @09:17PM (#27828385)
I'm working on something that just generates descriptions for stuff. e.g. a cheeseburger or potato:

  A cheeseburger is a delicious food enjoyed by many people. It consists of a bun, cheese, and meat. The meat is typically beef, but can be turkey, chicken, or other meats. To make the burger juicier, some people may add lettuce, tomato, or onion.

    The center of the potato is flat and dry. The skin of the potato is thin and dry as well, cracking and peeling in some places. The surface is dirty and there are some dark spots on it. There are two small sprouts growing out of the bottom of the potato.
Well technically I literally am paying for it via OpenAI's API, but the purpose is to get descriptions.
Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by Anunayj on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @09:24PM (#27828436)
Hmm Can't Wikipedia be simply used for it?
Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by muzani on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @09:44PM (#27828578)
Basically I want a text version of a stock photo.

Wikipedia's description of a potato:

    Potato plants are herbaceous perennials that grow about 60 cm (24 in) high, depending on variety, with the leaves dying back after flowering, fruiting and tuber formation. They bear white, pink, red, blue, or purple flowers with yellow stamens.
It's not quite human enough. Also you'll get the same thing each time and it's probably plagiarism. Just like you won't want that stock photo that everyone recognizes, a description like this is recognizable as being from Wikipedia.

In certain situations, I don't even want the exact writing but something inspiring. The Wikipedia potato stifles creativity.

Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by flippy_flops on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @10:18AM (#27833285)
a dark sky clone

Apple bought Dark Sky and closed the api for new devs. Supposedly they'll shut down the api next year for existing customers. If that happens, there are a bunch of sites/apps that would love to swap out their connection string to a similar service.

Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by mkw2000 on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @12:20PM (#27834813)
This, for sure.

I recently had to build some weather functionality and discovered Dark Sky right before they announced that they are discontinuing the API, and it's a real bummer because in my opinion nothing else comes close. There's a reason why Apple bought it.

Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by verdverm on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @05:12PM (#27826384)
I'd pay for services and expect a good API to be part of the deal
Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by yen223 on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @10:22PM (#27828854)
APIs to access bank account details would be really handy
Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by Shatnerz on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @05:45AM (#27831243)
This is required by law in the EU thanks to PSD2. It's not perfect but orders of magnitude better than the US banks I use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Services_Directive

Re:Ask HN: What API would you pay for? by kazinator on Thursday July 15, 2021 @09:54PM (#27852281)
> What API would you pay for?

One where I can submit a British Columbia license plate and get back a name and address.