Always-on AI voice assistants will work like a personal secretary that follows you everywhere: recording commitments, noting dates and handling the routine of daily life. The trade is privacy, and it will split people into those who embrace the technology and those who refuse it. In this interview I answer three questions on what AI voice means for people and business.
Recently, I was interviewed and asked several great questions about AI Voice and its impact on people and business. The topic is important because people that embrace this technology will be far ahead of those who do not. There will be new business models and revenue models coming from the increased efficiency we all have and the increased speed we will work. I am quite excited even though there will be some negative drawbacks to privacy as well. Here are the interview questions and my answers:
In what ways might Gemini Live’s voice features differ from those of current AI assistants like Siri, Alexa, or ChatGPT’s Voice Mode, especially concerning naturalness and overall functionality?
Siri and Alexa are an older generation of voice capabilities that does not allow for a fluid conversation that includes interruptions which are sometimes a natural part of human speech.
I have used ChatGPT voice mode and it is quite close to being natural speech. The hesitation it has in answering a question comes from it thinking (or actually processing) about an answer. The delay before answering is something a user gets used to because the answers are so good that the delay becomes ignored. This is true too of human speech.
What privacy concerns could arise with an AI assistant operating both in the background and while a phone is locked?
Assuming a person gave the AI assistant permission to always be listening like Amazon Alexa does, then the same concerns are relevant but more so. We carry our mobile phones with us all the time. The phone would be listening all the time to every conversation, voice, noise, and sounds we naturally experience. This feature can be extremely beneficial for vloggers who can now document their entire day at a level they could never have achieved before with just video but there might be a violation of an individual’s privacy involved. This is a new situation which will be debated when more people begin “Voice Vlogging” their life in public spaces and more so, in private situations. Not everything needs to be recorded.
How could introducing various voice options for AI assistants affect user engagement and the general perception of AI technology?
Once we become used to the new norm that many people have their voice assistant always on, things will feel normal because of the incredible advantages having it on listening, recording, noting down important parts of conversations, commitments we have made on specific dates and times, etc. It will feel like we have a personal secretary following us around all the time taking care of every facet of our personal and business life. People will feel empowered and more efficient.
The downside is that we lose some privacy and create a segment of people who refuse to use this technology and then we have a new segment of the haves and have nots. This technology will be abused by certain people but that is true of all new technologies. The flaw is not the technology, it’s that we are human.
Frequently asked questions
What is an always-on AI voice assistant? A voice assistant that listens continuously in the background, like a personal secretary that follows you everywhere, recording commitments, noting dates and times, and handling the routine of daily personal and business life. People who adopt it tend to feel more empowered and efficient.
How is the new generation of AI voice different from Siri and Alexa? Older assistants like Siri and Alexa cannot hold a fluid conversation that allows interruptions, which are a natural part of human speech. Newer voice modes are close to natural speech; the small delay before answering is the model processing, and users stop noticing it because the answers are so good.
What are the privacy concerns with an always-listening AI assistant? Because we carry our phones everywhere, an always-listening assistant would capture every conversation, voice and sound around us. That is useful for documenting a day, but it risks violating the privacy of others, especially in private situations. Not everything needs to be recorded, and this will be debated as more people record their lives.
Will AI voice assistants divide people? Yes. As always-on assistants become normal, a divide forms between those who embrace the technology and gain efficiency and those who refuse it, creating a new split of the haves and have-nots. Like every technology it will be abused by some, but the flaw is human, not technological.
Thomas Anglero is a Strategic AI Advisor, keynote speaker and author of Intro to Artificial Intelligence. He has delivered over 450 keynotes across 30 countries for organisations including IBM, the WHO, the World Government Summit and the European Commission. He founded the IBM Watson AI Lab for Cancer at the Oslo Cancer Cluster and closed over $500 million in enterprise transformation deals as CTO and Chief Innovation Officer at Cognizant.