We dream about machines that help us in everyday life from a long time. Movies are full of these visions – just to mention Iron Man’s Jarvis, or Samantha from Her.
Is there a threat that you fall in love with your virtual assistant?
Not today! It’s hard to fall for Cortana or Siri, but in the future – who knows?
By the way, descriptions below refer to the software original language versions in their countries of origin – they reach their heights in these conditions.
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Google assistant, 2016
More or less, its an extension of Google Now, which simulates active dialogue, and where the app learns user’s behavioral patterns and reacts to changing context. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, highlighted the importance of human-machine dialogue on the press conference about the new solutions which had a place in May 2016.
In other words, assistant (not Assistant) is a complex, advanced browser focused on outpacing wishes instead of being just “at your command.” It can be integrated with other apps and devices like Google Home ( the equivalent of Amazon’s Echo – read more below). Moreover, assistant deduces more from the context.
Google leveraged the fact that new solution is just the next step in search engine evolution, so it doesn’t show us just 10 blue links as an answer for our request, but participates in the conversation.
Siri, 2011
Although people dreamt about machines-assistants from a very long time, it was Apple’s Siri that started this era in 2011. She set iPhone’s alarm clock, searched for the information in web and sometimes even joked. Two years later, Google started with Google Now for Android.
Alexa, 2014
Jeff Bezos, CEO, and co-founder of Amazon watched the situation carefully and examined technology’s possibilities. In 2014 he released the Echo speaker. Echo used Bluetooth technology and worked online. It supports Alexa – Amazon’s virtual assistant.
Using it resembles real life conversation: we ask the Pringles-tube-shaped speaker and Alexa answers using the information found on the Internet (e.g. weather forecast). We can also request a song, an ebook purchase (Amazon’s Audible of course), book an Uber car, organize to-do list… And of course, add anything to our Amazon cart.
You can configure Alexa with your phone: contacts, services, etc., using the app.
Cortana, 2015
Microsoft started the virtual assistant development in 2009 and launched it 6 years later for Windows 10 (both: desktop and mobile). Cortana recognizes user’s voice and audio files and performs standard VA’s actions: browses the web, sets alerts and reminders, tells jokes.
It can also flip the coin or throw the dice.
Virtual Assistant’s future
Chris Brauer examines the question of VAs and consumer’s expectations towards them. He named following trends:
– vocal communication is important
– today assistants are supported by cell phones and wearables, but we evolve to switch devices to implants. We will become cyborgs
– assistant will know us better than we do
– we’ll use tiny headphones (put in our ears, maybe even implanted), designed to communicate with the assistant.
Brauer claims that implant trend will grow stronger – they are more handy and efficient than a traditional device.
The question is if the next step in VAs evolution will be human-machine integration, and we’ll no longer tell the difference between us.
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