If you got a smart speaker this holiday, and you likely got at least one, then you also most likely have taken sides. You'll grow accustomed the shortcomings and banter with friends about how your choice was better than theirs. I of course have both a Google home
and several Echo's
. Here are some weird situations I've witnessed.Google knows way more about local businesses and delivers great search type answers. Despite this it apparently did not know the name of Santa's reindeer. Really? It also could not tell me how "much" snow I was going to get a couple of weeks ago. Alexea had not problem with either.
But ask Alexa for a review of a local restaurant or movie times and your out of luck.
And for commentary sake. Will Apple "ever" get their overpriced speaker out the door? And seriously, does Bixbi really stand a chance?
Welcome to the future.
Smart assistants like Alexa and Google Home are now in 27 million American homes. (already an old number) Soon hearables will be in everyone's ears, and we'll be in the future. Well, technically we can never be "in" the future but you get the idea.
Once this happens, whose side will you choose? Will we become digital nation state of citizens based upon our AI allegiance? Yikes! How does that end well?
What would happen if we start seriously communicating with and through these siloed AI assistants? Would they allow cross communication? Likely not. Would the advertising on one drive a divide on who buys what products? (yep, probably. See Alexa says her favorite beer is Budweiser. Though I guess the ad budget ran out since she now no longer says that)
Each of these products are developing individual strengths, why should I have to choose?
Enter Meta-AI
Before Google owned most of the search market the web was full of meta search engines. These search engines would aggregate the best of the results (according to them) from many sources and let you choose from multiple viewpoints of importance. An example would be DogPile.com. Pretty cool and sometimes useful. (maybe we need one of these for political views too? Another article).
I don't think as many people use these any longer as in the past, but they did serve a purpose back before Google ruled the roost.
Why can't I simply plug my Bragi hearable earbud into my ear, ask a question and whichever AI assistant can give me an answer, I get that one. If both can do it I get the one upvoted the most. (yes, the upvoting is dangerous. The Russians or some other organization will manipulate that I'm sure. Save us blockchain!!)
Until we have a solution that gets us what we need, when we need it without having to ask 3 or 4 different sources, or one of these platforms gets "super smart" and dominates (scary?), then we need a meta-AI solution. Who will build it? Com'on smart people, get moving!
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