Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

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. 

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/