Sunday, April 29, 2018
Google Assistant requires some anthropomorphism- how about Jeeves?
Google Assistant in want of humanoidism
Now Google Assistant? It's just not as alluring. Because when I think Google, I think of employees, the logo, the stock price, Eric Schmidt, Sundar Pichai, his speech in IIT KGP, and what not. Just a confusing multitude of thoughts and emotions. So when I summon the assistant by the name of "Google", am I summoning this multitude of people to come to my service? I imagine a gaggle of 20,000 employees suddenly appearing in my quiet, dark bedroom to answer the query "Who owns Sunrisers Hyderabad". Whereas Siri? She glides in noiselessly, answers the query, and smoothly goes away.
Male assistants please- why not Jeeves by Hugh Laurie?
Which brings me to the next point- why Cortana and Siri? Why not a male baritone who can be like my pal from the Football team. They do have it, I think, but I'm unable to access it on my phone. Which reminds me of the ol' search engine Ask Jeeves.com. Those who read Wodehouse (like yours truly) would have had such a proclivity towards Askjeeves, over Google or Yahoo. The imagery is too compelling to resist. Similarly, Jeeves would be a great AI assistant, with a charming British accent and quirky language. They could train Jeeves AI to be based on Hugh Laurie's voice, in fact. And deserving Hugh Laurie thus finds a smart way to monetize his voice. In India, it could be Amitabh Bacchan, which would appeal to a fat lot of people. What AI voice do I want on my phone? Probably some baritone from Eastern Europe.
Edit 1, June 25: In a pleasingly self affirming co-incidence, Google has announced 10 days after this blog post that John Legend is to lend voice to Google Assistant: https://www.cnet.com/news/google-assistant-gets-six-new-voices-including-john-legend/
Edit 1, June 25: In a pleasingly self affirming co-incidence, Google has announced 10 days after this blog post that John Legend is to lend voice to Google Assistant: https://www.cnet.com/news/google-assistant-gets-six-new-voices-including-john-legend/
Labels: TechTock
Good conversation is like a good cricket pitch
Gotto have good pace, bounce and lateral movement.
- Pace: Rapid exchange of information
- Bounce: The other person reacts to your stimuli, and adds his or her own nuggets. Refinement from conversation with RR- the person need not only "add" a nugget- the other person may be an active listener, too. A genuine murmur of understanding may also count as legitimate bounce.
- Lateral Movement: Offbeat inputs and topics should come into the picture instead of the straight and narrow- conversation should not be along "predictable lines". Bold new angles and new perspectives to make the conversation move in interesting directions, such that where you end up is different from the 'line' on which you started.
Labels: Musings
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
