Future multitasking

I had an interesting experience recently while riding in the front passenger seat of a car. We had just stopped at a traffic light, and the driver needed to check something on a phone.

I was instructed to keep watching the light, and to say something when it turned green. In that moment, it occurred to me how convenient it would be to always have somebody with you to pay attention to things when you can’t.

Sometime in the coming years, a driver who is all alone will be able to give the same instruction to an A.I. assistant. The A.I. will, as instructed, dutifully watch traffic lights, and speak up when the light changes.

This kind of capability has all sorts of implications for many everyday situations. How many times have you not been able to do something, because in that moment you weredoing something else?

At some point we will all have our own A.I. assistant with high functioning virtual eyes and ears, to help us effortlessly multitask out here in the physical world. The interface for this will most likely be plain old conversational speech and gesture.

I am not sure whether this is a good thing.

2 thoughts on “Future multitasking”

  1. In most places, I’m sure the drivers in the other cars–especially those behind you–will be sure to promptly inform you when the light has changed. The interface for that is a very intuitive forward thrust of the hand toward the center of the steering wheel. If the weather is nice and the cars’ windows are open, there’s also a voice command mode available. 😉

  2. Very funny comment!

    Yet as it happens, there was nobody at all behind us — we were driving out in the suburbs on a weekend.

    It is probably not a good idea, in most situations, to rely too much on the anger of strangers. 😉

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *