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Month: October 2017

The Real Problem With Voice Assistants Like Siri Is Your Brain

“The bad news is that the capital-d Dream of a virtual assistant that manages your digital life while you live your real one is probably a lie. The real problem with voice assistants isn't that they're underpowered, or that their neural nets aren't sophisticated enough to intuit our requests. It's that user interfaces will always demand your attention—whether they're graphical, conversational, or, hell, telepathic.

I know this because for the past week, I’ve been using my AirPods to interact with Siri. Not to create timers, launch apps, or add things to my shopping list, but to, you know, get shit done.

In the morning, I slip an AirPod into my ear (just one), double tap it, and ask Siri to read me my emails while I make breakfast, recite the day's schedule while I put away dishes, organize my to-do list while I feed the dog, or help me field and respond to text messages as I pack up my bag and walk to the bus stop. Siri's voice recognition is now strong enough, its neural nets sharp enough, and its access to my personal information complete enough to handle this small handful of tasks quickly and consistently.�

The Real Problem With Voice Assistants Like Siri Is Your Brain
https://www.wired.com/story/multitasking-problem-with-virtual-assistants/
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‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia (via TheGuardian)

“There is growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward so-called “continuous partial attention�, severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ. One recent study showed that the mere presence of smartphones damages cognitive capacity – even when the device is turned off. “Everyone is distracted,� Rosenstein says. “All of the time.��

'Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia
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Rise of the Robolawyers: made me think (via TheAtlantic)

“DoNotPay is just the beginning. Until we see a major, society-changing breakthrough in artificial intelligence, robolawyers won’t dispute the finer points of copyright law or write elegant legal briefs. But chatbots could be very useful in certain types of law. Deportation, bankruptcy, and divorce disputes, for instance, typically require navigating lengthy and confusing statutes that have been interpreted in thousands of previous decisions. Chatbots could eventually analyze most every possible exception, loophole, and historical case to determine the best path forward.

As AI develops, robolawyers could help address the vast unmet legal needs of the poor. Roland Vogl, the executive director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology, says bots will become the main entry point into the legal system. “Every legal-aid group has to turn people away because there isn’t time to process all of the cases,� he says. “We’ll see cases that get navigated through an artificially intelligent computer system, and lawyers will only get involved when it’s really necessary.� A good analogy is TurboTax: If your taxes are straightforward, you use TurboTax; if they’re not, you get an accountant. The same will happen with law.�

Rise of the Robolawyers
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/rise-of-the-robolawyers/517794/
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Inside IBM’s Vision For AI: Strategic Insights From CEO Ginni Rometty (the end of programming)

“Watson and "The End of Programming": "Everything you know until today is programmable—an entire era for decades has been programmable. Watson would be the beginning of a new era where you didn’t program. Machines would look at data, understand, reason over it, and they continue to learn: understand, reason and learn, not program, in my simple definition."�

Inside IBM's Bold Vision For AI: 7 Strategic Insights From CEO Ginni Rometty
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2017/10/02/inside-ibms-bold-vision-for-ai-7-strategic-insights-from-ceo-ginni-rometty/#3c6dad326548
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