Last Friday, Google announced that Google Assistant is ready to read you the news in Dutch (Nu.nl, 2018). It is all part of Google’s plan to make all Google Assistant’s feature worldwide.
But how impressive is it all?
If by some miracle you have never heard of a personal AI assistant, Rouse (2017) defines it as an application program that understands natural language voice commands and completes tasks for the user. By integration into a smartphone, anybody will be able to use the feature.
How far are we now?
In May 2018 Eric Enge and his team researched which Digitial Personal Assisant was the best on the market. They tested 4942 queries on five different devices: Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana Invoke, Google Assistant on Google Home, Google Assistant on a smartphone and Apple’s Siri. Out of the results, Google Assistant on a smartphone was the most superior, with around 93% of the queries fully and correctly answered (Enge, 2018).
How far can it go?
This January Microsoft’s EVP of AI and Research Harry Shum predicted that in 20 years digital personal assistants will be so integrated into our lives that they will be like ‘alter egos’ (Feloni, 2018). He believes that the ultimate form of AI is in the form of a digital assistant. To outline his dream, him and Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote a book on how tech companies will need to work with both governments and academia to reach a consensus on the ethical use of AI in our daily lives (Feloni, 2018).
But is it credible?
I would be incredibly excited to have a personal AI assistant. But I do not think we will be able to use it effectively in our generation of business students. Right now, it is more a feature which can do some cool tricks and some small tasks and I do not expect, even in 20 years, that it can outperform a human assistant.
Interesting read Karim! The introduction of a Dutch version of the google assistant is surely important. It will be interesting to see how the Dutch culturally adapt to it. For now, I cannot imagine Dutch people using their Assistant while traveling on public transport for example like the Chinese would do. However, I do believe that, similar to the US market, the assistant will see frequent use in Dutch kitchens and bedrooms.
I must say that I do not agree with your last point. The current usage of smart voice assistant is already dominated by managerial tasks. Tasks like, setting alarms, checking the calendar for the day and setting calendar events are frequently used. Surely, full time human assistants will be hard to replace for a while but people who until know have not been able to afford (or get a budget for) an assistant will soon have access to something not too far off.
With the investments going into voice (Google even has a special investment program for Voice AI) I expect these assistants to be more effective than humans within 10 years.
https://searchengineland.com/survey-alexa-frequently-used-assistant-cortana-seen-accurate-269052
https://www.fastcompany.com/40567269/google-ups-ante-in-ai-voice-assisatnt-wars-with-startup-investment-plan
Thank you Tom for your comment! I have to say, after watching the video of monday’s lecture of ‘Alexa in the business world’ and reading your comment, I am beginning to change my mind. 🙂