Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Doubt It

I know I'm a bit of a technology skeptic even though I *like* technology. Hype skeptic is perhaps a better term, though I've made a few dumb calls because of it. Still what the hell is this:
Silicon Valley’s Big, Bold Sci-Fi Bet on the Device That Comes After the Smartphone Humane, a company started by two former Apple employees, says its new artificial intelligence pin can stop all the scrolling. Can it live up to the hype?
It's a "phone" you pin to your chest and operates mostly on voice commands.

The one thing I've long believed - and I have so far been right about this! - is that voice interaction with your machines is neato and has some niche uses but otherwise is mostly annoying and inefficient. And this:
Humane’s goal was to replicate the usefulness of the iPhone without any of the components that make us all addicted — the dopamine hit of dragging to refresh a Facebook feed or swiping to see a new TikTok video.
Not against the idea that the little dopamine dispensers are a problem but, also, people like the dopamine!

Getting reporters to call the type of interactions people have been having with Alexa for years, even if marginally improved, "AI," has been a neat trick.