Technology

“Where can I get a headlight replaced near me this weekend?” That was the question I posed to my smartphone’s voice assistant after police pulled me over for a burnt-out headlight (gulp). The search results turned up several auto parts stores across my greater urban area, but none with specific information about headlights, nor whether…

Advances in voice user interface (VUI) technology mean its presence is “heard” nearly everywhere. Voice commands and small conversations with virtual assistants to get information, drive, cook and more, are becoming increasingly common. By 2020, according to gartner.com, 30 percent of web browsing will be done without a screen. We see this in my household,…

Move over, Siri. The sales of smart home assistants, also known as voice devices, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant sold 19.7 million units in Q3 of 2018 alone, up from 2.9 million in the first quarter of 2017. With the much-increased demand comes the need for brands and businesses to adapt to this…

When’s the last time you read an internet privacy policy or a terms of use notice? If you and your users are like most people, the answer is likely never—despite their presence in nearly every website and app. Most people are in a hurry and know the terms are non-negotiable. So, they click the ‘agree’…

“Computer!” VUI (Voice User Interface) has been likened to all kinds of futuristic pop references from Star Trek to KITT, David Hasselhoff’s smart, talking car from Knight Rider. The concept is a simple—yet tech disruptive—one: Ask a question to your home assistant device (or phone interface) and get a spoken-word answer in real time. And thanks to…

Alexa. Siri. Google Assistant. Cortana. These names are becoming as ubiquitous as the name Google in most households. The use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), such as voice assistants, in commonplace daily tasks is multiplying at a dizzying rate. From vacuum cleaners to chatbots to copywriters, artificial intelligence is taking on tasks that up to now have…

In my ongoing search for savvy resources about building equity, inclusion, and diversity into online training courses, I stumbled across some fascinating studies on implicit bias, and how bias impacts the apps and online services we use as well as the artificial intelligence (AI) that fuels those apps and services. For context, there are two…

You might think you’re in a particularly crazy episode of Westworld, but be ready to snap back to reality. AI copywriters are no longer a feature of the future, but a firm fixture in the present. Innovation labs, banks and venture capitalists are throwing money behind the idea that robots can more effectively write copy…