That’s not my Name
Siri. Google Assistant. Cortana. Alexa. Viv. Jarvis. Vi.
--
Notice the odd one out?
All of these digital assistants are called by a very specific name.
Except one.
Google Assistant.
Now, why is that?
Why has Google decided to go against the grain and not pick a name for their AI. Why the very unspecific and not so relatable ‘Google Assistant’?
If we think about it, today it’s still a little weird speaking to your AI in public. Calling out ‘Cortana, please read out my schedule’ on the train is quite nerdy.
Everyone knows you’re speaking to a program.
And this is why I think Google has not named their AI yet. They want us to.
When the AI gets its name from the company, it feels more corporate. When we get to name it ourselves, it will feel more personal.
And soon we will be able to pick whatever name we want for our AI.
It will then become ‘ours’.
It’s also considerably less weird asking ‘Samantha’ to check our schedules in front of other people as they have absolutely no idea that we are conversing with software. They’ll think we’re talking to one of our secretaries.
We’ll be more comfortable conversing with our Digital Assistant.
She’ll be used more often, and in return will become smarter and more useful.
This, I believe, will remove one of the barriers to people seeing their Digital Assistants as more of a gimmick than a powerful tool in their pockets.
What do you reckon? Are you looking forward to your own digital secretary?
