Thousands of companies around the world are currently looking for how to bring artificial intelligence into the lives of consumers. Taking positions on an emerging technology can represent privileged situations in the future, so the fight is fierce to try to conquer unexplored terrain. As in the race that was organized in Oklahoma in the 19th century to allocate land to settlers, represented in films such as Cimarron in the versions by Wesley Ruggles (1931) and Anthony Mann (1960), and in A Far Far Horizon, by Ron Howard (1991). Under the sole rule of the law of the strongest, it was a cruel competition where there was no room or hope for the weakest. At IA we witness the daily spectacle of news because no one wants to be left behind or be overwhelmed by the horses of their adversaries.
While the most obvious option to bring AI to the public seems to be the mobile phone and the industry is already thinking about how to put this technology in the device in our pocket so that it does not have to connect to the cloud to work - because it involves significant energy consumption in computing on servers and supercomputers - there are those who want to colonize new territories. What has been talked about the most this week has been AI Pin, a device created by Humane, a startup founded by former Apple executives that wants to replace phones with its invention, a small device that is placed on the lapel (of there the pin). The AI Pin can be purchased as of yesterday in the United States for a price of $699 (without taxes) and carries a monthly subscription of $24.
What does this device do to try to replace the mobile phone? Basically it is an assistant like the ones we have on phones connected to an AI. It is used with a touch with your fingers. Answer questions, summarize emails and messages to explain the most important things, translate into different languages in a conversation, and play music (only with the Tidal streaming platform). The device has a monochrome laser projector that displays small information in the palm of the user's hand and has a camera that takes photos with two touches.
In the presentation demo, a person picked up a tropical fruit, a dragon fruit, and, holding it up, asked the AI if it could be eaten. The machine responded "yes, dragon fruit is low in sugar." Can you imagine dozens of people holding up a fruit, like Hamlet with the skull, and speaking out loud to ask the machine in a public space? The expectation that it has aroused is enormous, but it is starting to look like Google Glass.
