Why you’ll fire Siri and do the job yourself:
I spoke to ObEN co-founder and CEO Nikhil Jain this week. He told me ObEN’s technology generates a 3D, computer-generated representation of the user’s face with a single selfie.
ObEN also learns to copy your voice. Once it’s got your voice down, it can do things with your voice that you cannot — speak Chinese, for example, or sing.
That “personality” is based not only on how you speak, but on what you know as well. It’s even possible to add knowledge manually.
Hard to imagine anything going wrong with that.
I’ve long believed that the most trusted AI assistants would operate seemingly as an extension of the boss, rather than as a separate cybernetic entity.
Though, a Skynet-type virus could effectively replace the boss with the assistant without other people knowing — at least in science fiction…
Language has gaps. Both people and A.I. fill in those gaps. The difference is awareness. Computers have none so they’re just pulling statistically likely phrases from their dictionary. Then the programmer might note the ambiguities and ask for verification, but at no time does the computer know what it’s talking about.
Why would I set up an assistant that’s just like me? I’m too lazy to do much myself. A MiniMe wouldn’t be any better; in fact, if it had the power of today’s computers behind it, it might just be even lazier, and, being smarter, con me into doing stuff for it.
One wonders if the AI deduces preferences from private browsing. It would be embarrassing for your assistant to subscribe you to a half-dozen porn sites…