Thoughts on Voice Interfaces

In Finding a voice, the author warns that the language-based interfaces may blur the line between machine and human. For you, what are the consequences of language-based interfaces for our society? Use specific examples to support your opinion.

This question makes me ask a question about when people can use language-based interfaces without friction. It could be the time while cooking, driving, or holding something with hands. Regardless of the accuracy of language-based interfaces, I think graphic user interfaces will play the pivotal role even in the future. That is because videos and images are more powerful and efficient for conveying information than text or speaking interfaces. For example, when you cook food, your hands are not clean so that you may feel frustrated when you touch your phone. You can control the device with a voice to check the next step of the recipe without touching it. Google Home advertisement depicts the same situation. Looks OK, but when you imagine the situation, you may lose some part because of noise. You may want to check the image how to cut the vegetables appropriately. Therefore, I do not think language-based interfaces without screen will dominate the future.

The author warns that the language-based interfaces may blur the line between machine and human. I sense that people think that machine is their enemy or servant. Like the writer of the second article said. However, I believe that “Technology can provoke and inspire people.” What’s more interesting is that programmers might not intend to create a machine for a reason. I found an interesting example of unintended consequences, which is AlphaGo. A few years ago, There were Go games between AlphaGo and Lee Se-dol who is a top-class professional Go player. During the last game, AlphaGo made a bunch of weird moves because some moves of it were abnormal. Go players try to seize more territory all the time to keep seizing the chance to win, but AlphaGo moved oppositely in the game. People thought that it was an error. However, AlphaGo won by a single point. After the game, a Go expert said that the game was AlphaGo’s lesson to people that “it should not matter how much you win by, what you need is just winning the game and do not need the whole extra territory you do not need.” This event made me think that how arrogant we are, and the computer can be an artist or wise man that enlightens people.

In the Technology Imitates Art article, the author states that conversational user interfaces constitute “…the primary interface that much of the world will interact with in the foreseeable future.” If you were hired to work on improving the user experience of voice assistants (such as Siri, Alexa, or Google, etc), what would be your top priority? Describe.

I would like to focus on clarity of information. To do that, I think it is better to add more visual aspects for providing more easy and prompt information.

• “Finding a voice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 25 Nov. 2016.
• Technology Imitates Art: The rise of the conversational interface (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. (This article weaves chat-like commentary into the text)