Bill Gates once predicted: "In the near future, anyone online will be able to have a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence. You just tell your device what you want to do, and you don't have to use different ones for different tasks." Applications. These AI assistants will be able to help humans handle affairs in all areas of life, bringing profound impact to the software industry and society. "In contrast, "applications will die." The Mobile World Congress (MWC) held in March seems to have confirmed this statement: wearable devices represented by Galaxy Ring have seized the new trend of "digital health" and returned to the mainstream of the technology circle. T, which focuses on the concept of artificial intelligence assistants, -Mobile and AI Pin are trying to describe a new future of devices that is “not bound by mobile phones, screens, and apps.” But the media questions this vision: When all the applications needed in daily life are replaced by AI, can humans really get rid of "screen addiction"?
A world without smartphones
It is difficult for modern people to imagine life without mobile phones. We use mobile phones to communicate with family and friends, obtain news, arrange appointments, listen to music, buy daily necessities, and entertain ourselves. This palm-sized device has long become an important part of life. But to some extent, smartphones have taken over us, and "screen addiction" has gradually become an unsolvable problem. This is what artificial intelligence startup Humane hopes to change with Ai Pin. Founded by former Apple executives Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, Humane aims to bring a world without smartphones through artificial intelligence and wearable devices.
AI Pin is a miniature device that can be attached to clothes. It consists of two parts, one is the square device body, and the other is the battery pack with magnetic adsorption. There is no screen, and the GPT series large model with built-in OpenAI can be interacted with through voice or projected on the palm of the hand for interaction. The biggest feature is the built-in voice assistant AI Mic, an artificial intelligence assistant generated by drawing on large language models such as OpenAI. It is like the prototype of the intelligent assistant Jarvis in "Iron Man". Users can long press the Pin to talk to the AI Mic in natural language. They can ask it questions, use it to make calls, send text messages, take photos and videos, or ask it to assist in translation - —It is proficient in more than 50 languages and can "simultaneously interpret" when communicating with others. AI Mic can also scan the things in front of the user through the camera and describe them in detail. For example, when a user asks "How much does the book I have cost?" AI Mic can quickly reply "$28" and place an order directly online to purchase the book according to the user's instructions. According to Humane, AI Mic will get to know the user better and better as he gets along with people. It analyzes all the user's data, such as photos, videos, and notes, and provides recommendations based on that. For example, the user may want to have dinner with friend A. AI Mic can query from past records that A likes Japanese food, so it is recommended that the user go to a nearby sushi restaurant.
The most interesting setting is that AI Pin is not triggered by a wake-up word like voice assistants such as Siri. The user must tap the device to activate it. This is because the Humane team wants to clearly distinguish the boundaries between humans and AI, and does not want AI to “keep eavesdropping on its owner’s life.” This is also the vision when the company was founded, "to integrate artificial intelligence into daily life and enhance our capabilities without masking our humanity."
▲Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhry.
Humane's founders, Bethany Bongiono and Imran Chaudry, have long been engaged in hardware design and software engineering at Apple. Bongiono was the project manager for iPhone and iPad, and Chaudry was responsible for human-machine design. They met through work in 2008 and started a business together eight years later. Also leaving Apple to build Humane were product engineering chief Ken Kocienda, who developed the touch screen for the original iPhone, executive José Benitez Cong, and 100 others. employees. To be precise, nearly half of Humane's employees are from Apple, and they are all people who both agree with and hate Apple's influence - Chaudhry complained that "Apple makes screens everywhere", and Cong complained that his son would imitate him when he was 1 year old. They are wary of the impact of the iPhone and hope to create a new product to "atone" - their goal is to develop a smart device that has the practicality of the iPhone without being addictive. This is why Humane accepted investments from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others, but rejected Apple and Meta’s offer to “jointly develop MR helmets” at the start-up stage.
"The future should not be reflected on the user's face." Chaudhry pointed out that wearable devices such as smart glasses and AR helmets can actually cause obstacles to normal interpersonal communication, cannot be worn comfortably for a whole day, and may also damage hairstyles. Therefore, from the beginning of the design, AI Pin emphasized "low intrusion" and reducing screen dependence. It will not interfere with eye contact between people when used. Chaudhry emphasized: "We want to have powerful computing power at any time and anywhere, and we want to have more knowledge and information, but we want to get it all in a way that maintains a sense of human existence."
The AI Pin will be available for pre-order in 2023 and is priced at US$699. Using the device requires an additional monthly subscription fee of US$24 to obtain connectivity, data storage and artificial intelligence services. In terms of price, it is more affordable than Apple Vision Pro. Many people believe that AI Pin is building an AI-oriented operating system, which may be the next iPhone in the wave of large models. Many people also doubt that the popularity of AI Pin is just a flash in the pan, thinking that it is "clumsy and cannot replace mobile phones." TechCrunch teases that it may eventually be eliminated like the life-recording camera Narrative CLIP. Mark Lu, the former head of the Meta AR project Mark Lucovsky bluntly stated that he “cannot see the unique value of AI Pin.”
But it is undeniable that the emergence of AI Pin reflects the technology circle’s willingness to change smartphones and the rise of artificial intelligence assistants. Samsung and LG are developing home robot assistants with artificial intelligence as the core; Rabbit's AI handheld console Rabbit R1 proposes the concept of "working with mobile phones through external AI assistants", which is similar to "giving an unlocked mobile phone to a friend to operate." By learning the user's operating habits and using the App instead of the user, the purpose of "reducing the use of mobile phones" is achieved. Tens of thousands of units were sold as soon as it was launched; the artificial intelligence concept mobile phone T Phone jointly developed by Deutsche Telekom and the start-up company Brain.a , with "no App" as its selling point, allows users to perform tasks on their mobile phones through artificial intelligence assistants, "like a personal butler, it understands what you need and think and handles everything for you." Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges predicts that mobile phone apps will die out in the next five to 10 years and that "artificial intelligence will kill them." IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo pointed out that with the development of artificial intelligence technology, AI mobile assistants will be the end of device research and development, “In the past 10 years, we have been paying attention to how many applications Apps can help us. Now, the fewer apps, the better the phone is."
▲AI handheld console Rabbit R1.
▲Artificial intelligence concept mobile phone T Phone.
Can smartphone addiction be cured?
"Wearable artificial intelligence devices herald a future without mobile phones," "the first-generation product at the dawn of the artificial intelligence revolution, the first step towards a brave new world." All along, while we enjoy the convenience of smartphones, we also When worrying about addiction, one of the culprits is apps, which are often inefficient and easily distracting. Even office apps are designed to make it easier for users to become addicted - but "no app" AI Pin, etc. Can devices really replace mobile phones because of "anti-addiction"?
Wearable smart devices first need to face the test of whether they can adapt to user operating habits. First of all, with all today's technology products using touch screens, AI Pin's projection screen is slightly backward and difficult for users to adapt to. Secondly, artificial intelligence assistants are not unique to wearable devices. Manufacturers can also introduce this technology into mobile phones, which will make it easier for users to pay for them. In addition, in terms of actual application and wearing conditions, the audience of AI Pin is more inclined to technology geeks than ordinary users. After all, people tend to put their mobile phones in their pockets instead of keeping them on their chests. The most important thing is that it may not be able to do some functions better than a smartphone: users can issue a "photograph" command, but it may never be as good as taking out an iPhone to adjust the light, focus, and shoot.
More importantly, AI Pin may not be as effective as expected in "breaking mobile phone addiction". The founders of Humane once admitted that even if they wear AI Pin, they cannot completely reduce their use of iPhone.
As a representative of smart device innovation, AI Pin does bring challenges to traditional smartphones, but it is difficult to subvert the smartphone market. It is just a "meaningful effort" by the technology community to get rid of mobile phones, or in other words, it is a vision for a future without mobile phones. A beautiful promise. Bongiono and Choudry agree: "We are technology optimists at heart. We don't think about replacing smartphones. It's just that in order to make the relationship between humans and technology truly screen-free, we need something completely different." thing."