{"id":301127,"date":"2021-07-16T22:57:22","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T19:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/what-happens-when-our-virtual-assistants-die\/"},"modified":"2021-07-16T22:57:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T19:57:22","slug":"what-happens-when-our-virtual-assistants-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-happens-when-our-virtual-assistants-die\/","title":{"rendered":"#What happens when our virtual assistants die?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#What happ<\/a>ens when our virtual assistants die?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

Virtual assistants are a lagniappe technology<\/a>. Almost nobody actually needs them, but when they work properly they bring a little something extra to your life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even though they\u2019re heavily flawed and a clear-and-present danger to our privacy, it\u2019s still super nice to be able to yell \u201cHey Google, play some Skynyrd!\u201d while I\u2019m doing the dishes and, lo and behold, it\u2019s <\/span>Freebird<\/i> time. <\/span><\/p>\n

But not all virtual assistants are created the same. We\u2019ve got Cortana tethered to our desk, Alexa trying to manage our homes, and either Google or Siri in charge of our phones. <\/span><\/p>\n

One cool thing about virtual assistants is that my data persists even if I lose all my gadgets. I\u2019m on my fourth or fifth Google Assistant-enabled phone and, I must admit, it\u2019s nice to sign in to my account on a new device and skip the setup because Assistant already knows my voice. We\u2019ve got history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mister Greene, Sir, no need for you to wait in line. Your paperwork and admission has already been handled. Right this way to the VIP section. Fancy some YouTube<\/a> videos?<\/i><\/p>\n

For many of us, virtual assistants just play our music, dim our lights, and tell us what time it is in Amsterdam so we\u2019ll know whether it\u2019s an appropriate hour of the day to bug our bosses on Slack \u2013 maybe that last one\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n

But a handful of unnecessary, yet welcome, little conveniences can eventually become the foundation for what I like to call a quality of life checkpoint<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I never remember to turn the music on before I start doing the dishes. I don\u2019t want to go back to a lifestyle where I have to stop what I\u2019m doing, dry my hands off, pull out my phone, connect it to my Bluetooth speakers, open a music player, choose a song, and then press play. That feels barbaric now, even though I was born in the 1970s and grew up 8-tracks, cassettes, and compact discs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that we couldn\u2019t live without our virtual assistants (and, for the sake of our privacy, we really<\/i> should<\/a>), but there\u2019s a reason why Amazon and Google sold more than 30 million smart speakers in Q4 of 2020 alone<\/a>. People like convenience.<\/p>\n

And, it\u2019s a pretty safe bet that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are going to be around for a long, long time. So if you\u2019re already willing to let them have your data, at least you\u2019re helping to train the assistant to better aid you.<\/p>\n

But nothing lasts forever and the grim reaper comes for machines too.<\/p>\n

A few years back I reviewed Anki\u2019s \u201cVector,\u201d a cute little robot that was just too awesome to fail. Vector was a second gen robot stuffed with Amazon\u2019s Alexa and a digital display \u201cface\u201d that was designed and animated by Pixar artists.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Nicole Gray<\/figcaption>