A World without a screen
AI is creating the next computing platform
Inspiration
This last week I was inspired by a Wired article that looked back at a commercial from AT&T in 1993 that envisioned a future that looks a lot like today.
The discussion on the next 25 years got me thinking about one specific aspect; will we trade in the screens in our pocket for something else?
Evolution from writing to speech
It is not that we won’t have screens in our lives. It is that today we use screens when it is not the most natural user interface for us to engage in an activity. There are many times that it is faster and easier to use voice to complete a task. Take for example an idea that you have in your head and you’re putting it down on paper. You can see from the chart below that speaking is much faster than writing something down. My most dominant use case on a computer today is to communicate information to other people. Typing is one of the slowest processes. The computing power in your phone is much higher than your brain.
Additionally, people can listen and read at higher rates than they can speak or write. This is part of the reason why video is such a powerful media. You’re starting to see the emergence of new technology that does not require physical input for typing. For example, to create this blog post I used voice transcription from my phone to get my initial draft of this article. It was much faster for me to talk into my device than to type out the words. There are also other tasks that are starting to emerge that leverage AI and non-screen UI to complete the task. For example, do you create this blog I use voice transcription from my phone to get my initial draft of this article. It was much faster for me to talk into my device than it would have been to type out the words. The devices that we have in our lives are still getting better at understanding voice and transcribing it into words. As these get stronger it will make a lot more sense to take easy notes here and there as you move from one activity to the next. Most of the transcription in the world is still done with humans. Take doctors for example. They will say a note after they meet with a patient. Then someone (mostly overseas) will listen to the recording and transcribe the recording into a written format. The emergence of new technologies, like Descript, are able to do this at much higher speeds and with great levels of accuracy.
Layer on AI to interpret and synthesize data with advance Natural Language Processing (NLP) you can foresee a revolution in computing.
Examples of Ambient technology
Many examples of screenless experiences are emerging, or at least where the screen is secondary to the experience. Amazon’s Echo is just the start of a new wave of experiences that blend advancements in AI software solutions and microchip technology.
Xbox Kinect and Nintendo Wii were some of the first experiences that ushered in the use of AI to create immersive experiences, but we are now entering a phase where these immersive experiences don’t require a screen. The below are just a few everyday experiences that are the result of new AI compute models.
- Voice assistants like Alexa respond to vocal commands
- Lighting and thermostat sensors respond to physical movement to turn on/off
- Health trackers like Strava use a combination of GPS and physical movements where the screen experience is an output layer, not input
- Autonomous driving uses cameras, GPS, and computer vision to assess the world to provide a screenless experience
- Airpods create a screenless experience to bring Siri to life
The start of the AI future
Over the past 50 years, we have seen 4 different dominant computing platforms and we are now entering the fifth era driven by AI. This new wave of AI computing like the waves before are bringing new forms of engagement for users.
At the moment there are a few companies that are well positioned to be leaders in the AI world, though it is unclear whether there will be a single dominant platform. It is likely that the cloud infrastructure that sits behind the AI will be the platform to enable the experiences. Right now AWS is the leader in cloud, with Microsoft and Google very active in the AI space well.
It is clear to me that AI will power the future businesses and that solutions that harness this power will be the companies that experience the rocket ship growth that has powered Uber, Netflix, Airbnb, and Spotify during the mobile era.
