More than Siri, not yet Skynet—Autonomous AI gadgets are coming!
Holographic companions amidst neon-lit cities
Let me paint you a picture that we’ve seen so many times, in various iterations, in fiction.
You’re engrossed in conversation with a charmingly intuitive AI assistant. Their voice, soft and reassuring, smoothly guides you through the humdrum of your daily tasks, their responses tailored to your every whim and fancy, exactly how you like. You find a curious kind of solace in their companionship; they’re always there for you, and with them, everything seems easy. In time, they become not just a digital assistant, but a confidante, a friend.
Maybe they’re even a holographic entity, shimmering with a captivating allure, integrating themself into the fabric of your existence amidst the rain-soaked, neon-lit alleys. You might be feeling down, but their mere presence lifts your spirits, and your everyday interactions stave off the loneliness that would otherwise permeate your every waking moment.
These (I think rather obvious) references to iconic portrayals of AI companions—namely, Samantha from Her and Joi from Blade Runner 2049—are glimpses into imagined futures where AI assistants go beyond mere functionality and find their places as indispensable companions in our daily lives. Dystopia or not, there’s a definite appeal to these sci-fi visions, even if they portray a reality where the boundaries between man and machine blur to a considerably disturbing level.
Okay, so this is fiction, but what about reality? For better or for worse (maybe), we’re nowhere near these futuristic AI companions, obviously. But we’re certainly at an interesting stage of technological development, because AI is here now and people are scurrying to find the best uses for it, and the best ways it can assist us. Are all these attempts actually good? Of course not, but we’re getting… somewhere.
Gadgets vying to become smart assistants
There have been a couple of gadgets popping up recently, namely the Ai Pin and the Rabbit R1, that are envisioned as a sort of smart assistant, making ample use of current AI technology—and aiming to make our lives easier and more streamlined.
How they work is supposed to be rather simple: you just talk to them. You can ask the Ai Pin questions, and it’ll speak the answer out to you. You can issue commands to the Rabbit, and the device is supposed to do the legwork for you—be it ordering a pizza, making reservations, or similar.
How well they work is, of course, still up in the air. But it’s certainly interesting that companies are going in this direction, doubly so when we take into account that many people are still quite attached and used to phones.
Even though it seems redundant to have a dedicated gadget just for an AI assistant when we have a more than capable piece of tech already constantly with us, I can say that the philosophy around these gadgets is interesting to me, even though it’s clearly in its infancy.
What sets this kind of technology apart is its promise of autonomy. It’s meant to operate backstage until the moment you need it. And when you do need it, the interaction is supposed to be more natural—you use your voice instead of fumbling around on a polished glass slab with your clumsy fingers. And it should do the thing you ask it to do, without you wasting time exploring some GUI to figure it out yourself.
Are we approaching this stage with our current tech, thanks to AI? Could we soon have smart assistants taking initiative and doing stuff for us every day?
Implementing AI for more autonomous tech
Considering where tech has been going for the last couple of years, AI could be taking on a more prominent role and enhance automation in various ways. Instead of just being on the sidelines, AI might take the center stage, integrated into many parts of our daily routines.
AI has obvious potential for simplifying and automating tasks. Imagine if our devices, like smartwatches or gadgets in our homes, could understand more about what’s happening around them and what we need. It’s context-aware technology that’s competent in executing what it deduces to be the best course of action.
Technology that understands our situation and takes action before we even ask would be quite something. Instead of just giving us notifications, our devices could actively interact with us based on what’s happening around us.
Previous steps towards smart assistance
And there have certainly been some steps in this direction. Something we’ve already seen with the rising popularity of smartwatches and smart jewelry are the gradual steps towards constant background monitoring and assessing of health and fitness.
There’s gadgets like the Oura ring, an example of smart jewelry whose main purpose is to monitor your biometrics and measure the quality of your sleep, your stress levels, heart health and more. Apple Watches are famously big on health monitoring, sensing all kinds of things like irregular heart rhythms, mobility and cardio fitness, and blood oxygen levels—with Apple even venturing into diabetes management by working on implementing blood glucose tracking into some future iteration of their smartwatch.
This kind of tech that can assist you with keeping tabs on chronic health issues, notify you about potentially dangerous states, or even act on its own to get you help if you’re injured or unresponsive means a big quality-of-life improvement for a lot of people. The tech that has done this up until recently has relied on advanced algorithms and machine learning to do so. And with the current advancements in AI, they’ll certainly be able to do even more—possibly even detecting potential health issues much earlier and thus aiding in preventing or mitigating them.
Smart homes are another example of this kind of thinking, but they can get even more involved and proactive, especially if connected to wearables or other devices near to you.
Thermostats are already smart enough to regulate the temperature of the room when they sense it’s cold, but with AI and communication with other devices, they could sense that you’re cold instead and adjust the temperature without your input. The tech could be aware of your habits and patterns around the house and implement eco-friendly practices to reduce your environmental footprint. It could be made to change the ambient for therapeutic benefits and relaxation so you can unwind and recharge after what it senses has been a long day for you.
Indeed, with IoT technology now being relatively mature, and with advances like 5G, cloud computing, and now AI, there’s quite a bit of solid ground for what could be the upcoming rise of devices that mainly work on their own, somewhere in the background.
Futuristic ideas for everyday experiences
I can think of many rather wild—and some decidedly frivolous—ideas for future implementations of smart tech that does the thinking and the work instead of us.
Something, for instance, like smart glasses or lenses that constantly record what we see in the background (once we get to the point where storage and battery life aren’t an obstacle for this anymore). These might recognize a nice view that we perhaps had an emotional reaction to—which they get informed of thanks to the biometric data from, say, our smartwatch—and take note of it for us to review later. Our devices wouldn’t have to nag us with notifications like “hey, nice sunset, want to take a photo of it?” while we’re right in the midst of living it out; they could just make us aware of it later and provide us with photos or videos when we’re browsing social media and thinking of posting something.
I mean, if everything’s being recorded anyway, there’s no way you’d be going through it all by yourself. Better to have AI pick out the highlights according to what it knows you’d like to relive or share. Like some sort of automatic, multimedia diary.
(Of course, I can already see a million ways how this could turn into yet another Black Mirror episode, but let’s not go there this time.)
Smart tech could see that you’re in a conference call and instruct the delivery person to leave your food at the door. It could regulate the temperature of your bed when it senses you’re getting uncomfortable, to avoid it disturbing your sleep. You could have it curate personalized outfits based on your preferences and the occasion, so you don’t have to waste time scouring the internet. Maybe it could even pay your bills and do your taxes, if you’re feeling extra adventurous.
Nothing without skepticism
I mean… would you really let it do all that? Can we trust it to do all these things without error?
People might be skeptical of technology taking over a great deal of tasks, because they don’t trust it to do it correctly, consistently, or reliably. What if the technology made a dangerous mistake that you never would’ve done yourself? It’s a considerable leap of faith to let go of the reins and hand over control to machines.
This skepticism influences people before they even try out the technology. People always seem to be cautious about embracing tech that claims to make life easier, fearing that it might introduce more complications than solutions. But when a significant amount of people accept the new technology, others soon follow, and we get widespread adoption.
And, after all, we’ve already seen this play out with all kinds of technological advancements; a new thing comes along, many people are afraid of it and point out its dangers, the thing gets improved over time, it finds its way into mainstream use, and we all get used to living with some of its risks. I mean, our prehistoric cousins made ample use of fire in spite of its, well, finicky nature—that didn’t stop them, did it? We drive cars, we use gas stoves, we’re pretty much surrounded by electricity, and they’re all dangerous in their own ways. We’re continuously improving them to make them as safe as we can, but accidents can still happen. We just collectively decided that the advantages outweigh the potential downsides.
At what point will this happen with smart assistants, we’re yet to see. Both the Rabbit R1 and the Ai pin had already sold a significant amount of units before even shipping, so a certain amount of curiosity is definitely there. The fact that these devices have already found their buyers might indicate that there’s, after all, a growing willingness to explore the potential of smart assistants.
Anthropomorphizing tech and the fear of dehumanization
There’s one more thing I’d like to mention, although more philosophical: what does this AI autonomy actually entail in the future? What I’m getting at is, in our quest to have AI assistants and making them write and talk and sound (and, one day, look) human, coupled with our tendency to attribute human-like characteristics, emotions, and intentions to technology and devices that exhibit these traits, there’s no doubt in my mind that most people are going to start perceiving them not just as tools but as companions or even friends.
When I think of Samantha and Joi from the beginning of the article, that’s the thing I find most realistic about them; us humans anthropomorphizing these pieces of technology because we imbue them with empathy, understanding, companionship—qualities we’ve until recently associated only with living, organic beings.
How about this: if we end up relying more and more on AI assistants and other automated systems, will we perhaps become disconnected from genuine human interactions and emotions? If we prioritize the convenience and efficiency of smart tech tailored to us, might we inadvertently start diminishing the richness and authenticity of human relationships? Will the lines start blurring so much that we in turn start treating live humans the same way we treat our anthropomorphized technology?
Are these speculative future experiences maybe already cause for concern? Maybe, maybe not. At least not for most people. However, while commercial AI is currently not embodied in a physical, humanoid form, it can definitely sound very convincingly human—both thanks to the way LLMs can string thoughts, and to the current state of voice synthesis. Some people have already started using these to mitigate loneliness; would that mean that LLMs are arguably capable of at least a rudimentary kind of relationship that feels just a bit real?
For the rest of the population, who knows how their relationship with AI might soon evolve. But if anything, these speculations will continue reflecting the various complex stances bouncing between our continued fascination with AI technology and our anxieties about its implications for human society and identity.