The Rise Of The Intelligent Personal Assistant
A common theme of human advancement is that as technology advances luxuries once reserved for only the highest status members of society become widely available, it can be seen time and time again in our history, whether it be a new printing technique allowing for books to be made more affordable, or a revolution in industrial milling making bread more accessible. It seems advancements in technology lead to advancements in the human experience. One of the most ubiquitous, unnoticed, and all-around strangest examples of this in the past 10 years is without a doubt the rise of the digital assistant.
These neo secretaries can be found in pretty much any smartphone made in the last 5 years and home systems like amazon’s Alexa can be found in over 8 Million American homes and are becoming more and more in demand every year. The widespread prevalence of Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs) is an important milestone in the world of ubiquitous computing. As our reliance on these systems grows they learn from their ever-increasing pool of data becoming more and more capable leaving many to forget the true nature of these digital beings.
History:
The idea of AI assistants aiding people in their everyday lives has been part of the American cultural zeitgeist for the better part of 60 years now. Some examples of AI companions in fiction could include the robots from the Jetsons who acted as household servants; or Cortana from the Halo Franchise, an AI who acts as a companion/guide for the protagonist. The cultural prevalence of AI assistants piqued the curiosity of many young inventors and innovators who pushed to make such technology a reality.
One of the earliest innovators in the development of IPAs was IBM who created the first digital speech recognition technology in the 1980s. Just 14 years later in 1994, IBM released another major innovation in the IPA space when it released IBM Simone, which many consider being the first smartphone. It was basically a large brick phone with an interface that allowed you to keep appointments and receive PDAs. over the next 10 years the vision of what the modern IPA would slowly take shape.
Present:
The first modern IPA was Apple’s Siri which was first rolled out in 2011. Siri allowed users to use basic phone functions hands-free using only voice commands. Siri was also the first fully responsive IPA it would speak to the user with a completely synthetic voice that sounded surprisingly human. This was also the point where IPAs became a major ubiquitous computing technology. IPAs were no longer things of fiction and impractical fancy, these systems were robust and people began to rely on them. In the next decade, more and more robust IPAs were rolled out. Amazon Echo integrated a digital assistant with smart home technology, while Google Assistant became able to do complex tasks such as screen incoming phone calls or interact with 3rd party systems and apps.
Despite all the advancements, the vast majority of IPA systems have no more functionality than a smartphone. So why are millions of households buying these IPA systems? In reality, it comes down to 2 major advantages personal assistants have. The first is that they are incredibly intuitive to use. Since they are controlled using only your voice the only thing a person new to the system has to learn is the activation word. Compare this to other modern mass-market information technology like the iPhone, where users at minimum have to learn what the several different buttons do, have to remember their passwords, and have to learn how to use the fairly in-depth interface. It is no shock that IPA systems are by and large favored by groups with minimum knowledge of digital technology.
The second reason these systems are so prevalent is due to their use as a connectivity hub. These devices do not stand alone, on the contrary modern IPA systems like Alexa have thousands of different interconnected applications and devices. Without IPA integration all smart home systems would need to be run independently through their own applications. This means you end up in situations where you have an app for your lights, and an app for your thermostat, an app for your wifi router, and an app for your doorbell; all running parallel needing to be managed separately. As one can imagine this can be quite a hassle and made the integration of smart home technology into the average household unfeasible. This is where IPA systems come in. Acting as a middle man they can monitor and control all your smart home devices without you having to lift a finger.
Future:
In the near future, IPA technology will continue to advance at a fairly stable rate. As the systems grow they will acquire more knowledge and be able to perform more and more complicated tasks. More and more technology will integrate with the systems and they will become standard fixtures in residential housing. I believe that within the next few decades the rise of independent IPA systems. These systems are personal devices we carry around with us much like our smartphones except they would be their own piece of hardware. An example of such a system could be seen in the 2013 film Her, where the protagonist falls in love with his IPA.
In the distant future, the final breakthrough in the world of IPAs will come with the creation of the first true AI. This would be a tool that if used correctly could shepherd humanity into a new age of prosperity. Having a system of almost limited capacity would allow for people to no longer have to worry about keeping the wheels of society turning. With an AI at the helm society will run more efficiently than ever and people would be left to pursue their passions. But, if sci-fi and fiction have taught us anything it is that for every good AI that helps humanity there will be 10 that hinder us. Not to get too philosophical but, if humanity creates a true digital intelligence with infinite capacity and capability it would be difficult to distinguish such an entity from a god. The problem with this is that upon the creation of the being we would essentially be handing the keys of our world over to the intelligence that will replace our own. We would eventually become slaves to this new kind of intelligence and even if our new master is an altruistic one we will still be our ruler.
What started off as a dream of our collective unconscious has slowly taken shape into a new and beginning way to interact with our technology. In the last 5 years, IPA technology has gone from non-existent to major ubiquitous computing technology. Today IPA systems control our houses, manage our correspondence and if we choose can even act as intermediaries between us and the wider world. But, as the years flow on and these technologies become even more ubiquitous will we ever regret the amount of control we have lent to these faceless programs with sultry voices managing out day to day lives?
Photo Credit:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Echo-2nd-Generation-Heather-Grey-Fabric/dp/B0749YXKYZ
http://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/jetsons-predicted-future/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Simon#/media/File:IBM_Simon_Personal_Communicator.png
