Envisioning the next web: A personal discovery journey
A few months ago, I found myself wrestling with a linguistic dilemma. Should I consume news in English or Spanish? My Spanish proficiency wasn’t quite up to par, and although reading news in English was comfortable, it left me stumbling when attempting to convey these insights in Spanish conversations. That’s when I decided to employ the assistance of technology.
Enter the Daemon: A technical solution
I commissioned a bespoke software tool — a ‘daemon’, as we used to refer to background-running software in the UNIX era.
This ingenious software was designed to access my inbox, cleverly identify simplistic sentences and swap them with their Spanish translation. Alternatively, it would annotate new concepts and ideas with Spanish translations in brackets.
I later added Chinese to the mix; given my increasing distance from my birth country, I need to be told how to refer to new techs in Chinese.
All these changes were highlighted in a distinct font for easy recognition. The daemon would then supplant my original email with this linguistically enriched version. Looking back, ‘genie’ might have been a more fitting moniker, given its remarkable utility!
Challenges and Potential: The Road Ahead
Sounds like a good idea? Well, in practice, it was littered with minor issues.
These were largely attributable to the nascent state of today’s AI and Gmail’s disapproval of email modifications. Therefore, don’t anticipate me releasing any genie from a bottle.
Realistically, a dedicated team would be necessary to fine-tune it for mass market appeal. I anticipate that we might see such solutions gaining popularity in the coming years.
Despite its bugs and quirks, I found the tool not only useful but also enlightening. It was a piece of software that worked in tandem with me, rather than serving as a mere interface. It felt akin to having a wise companion aiding you in your work, a sensation that was refreshingly novel.
An Evolving Vision: AI and Tokenisation
I refrained from writing a blog about it until today as I’ve been pondering over the ideal blueprint for the next web era, for my upcoming talk in EDCON.
There’s ample room for improvement in the current incarnation of this AI daemon, and it feels more like how people should be using AI in the future.
Consider this example: one of the emails pertained to my trip to Podgorica to speak in EDCON. A friend suggested that since I’d be a day ahead due to limited flight availability, I could potentially drive to Banje Beach, a 2.5-hour drive away in Croatia.
Ideally, I’d like the daemon to insert a note like “Australia passport holder needs no VISA, border check at Debeli Brijeg” inserted right at that line. Gmail might do this, except that they aren’t privy to my Australian passport, but my daemon would be. Upon opening this paragraph, I would hope for my diligent daemon to recommend a rental car. Gmail might eventually offer this, too, but only my daemon would be aware that I’m a diamond member with IHG, and therefore entitled to free car rental upgrades with Hertz. I’d also hope for it to reserve a nice spot for me when I arrive, interfacing with my digital wallet so I can confirm this while reading the email, with an auto-generated reply, as opposed to frantically opening new browser tabs, making the booking, and then returning to the email to outline what I booked.
The Future is Here: API Providers and Blockchain
For all these to work, we need better AI, but also, very importantly, websites that are designed to provide some service, like API providers, instead of expecting the users to log in.
This, however, presents significant implementation challenges. For instance, it’s already a hurdle for Hertz to display the options available to a diamond IHG member (it takes a full day to verify this membership), let alone recognise a user’s membership and offer API-based services without the user even visiting the website.
Despite these challenges, evolution prefers this direction.
Websites that can transform themselves into APIs are likely to be adopted by AI assistants or ‘daemons’, as I like to call them, and gain a larger market share.
And that’s not the end of it! By offering APIs instead of traditional websites, products and services can become digital objects for users, making them prime candidates for tokenisation.
This essentially means these services can manifest as objects on the blockchain, expanding their reach even further, both in terms of availability (what are on the market) and composability (what you can build with it as a component).
Imagine if my daemon could present car rental options from all available sources, not just from Hertz or an aggregator, but from any tokenised car service that can be purchased through the blockchain, and curate my itinerary accordingly. Even better, this could be done in the time it takes to compose an email.
Much of the technologies required to make this vision a reality will be discussed in my upcoming talk at EDCON, where I’ll delve into the concept of Smart Layer.
This emerging technology promises to revolutionize the way we interact with digital services, opening up a myriad of opportunities for individuals and businesses alike.
So, join me as I explore the future of AI, blockchain technology, and digital personal assistance. This journey has just begun, and I am excited to see where it will lead us.
The future is almost here, and it is certainly looking bright.
