Google’s tech lab for teens sows the seeds of diversity
One of the best ways to solve the tech sector’s lack of diversity is to start ’em young. New York City’s mayor, Melinda Gates, and tech titans like Microsoft and Google all know that. In fact, the big G has just opened a computer science lab in Oakland called Code Next that was built specifically to teach black and Latino teens how to code.
According to a Google study from 2015, one of the reasons why tech corporations have very few minority employees is that half of black and Latino kids in the country don’t have access to computer science classes. As a result, Facebook’s, Apple’s, Microsoft’s and Google’s workforces are overwhelmingly white (and male). This program will bring the classes to them, and Oakland is an ideal location as one of the most diverse cities in the US.
Besides coding classes, participants will also do hands-on activities during their weekend and after-school programs. Topper Carew from MIT’s Media Lab, which helped develop Code Next’s curriculum, told TechCrunch that they “want to get [the students] to a point where they are competent, comfortable and champions in the coding space” and to ultimately get them ready for college.
While participants won’t have to pay a single cent, only those recommended by their schools and local non-profits like Black Girls Code will be able to get in. They have a better grasp of their own communities, after all, and Google decided to build with (and not for) the community from the start. Code Next is currently working with 70 eighth-grade students in Oakland, half of which are girls, and will work with 70 more in Harlem when that location opens in 2017.
As you can guess, the kids who get in already have one foot in the door. April Alvarez, Google Student Experience Program Manager, told TC that “these kids will definitely be set up to work at Google and will be highly competitive applicants. They will also be set up to start their own companies — to start their own next Facebook or Apple.”
Source: TechCrunch, Wired
A ‘Made by Google’ pop-up store is coming to New York
With a slew of new hardware, Google is finally aiming for scale. The new Pixel phones, the smart Home speaker — these aren’t Nexus-level side projects. These are polished, premium projects that Google wants to sell in large numbers. For that to happen, the company will need to spend some marketing dollars — and based on the official Made by Google website, it’s prepared to do just that. One page with “popup” in the URL shows the Google logo and the address “96 Spring Street” underneath. Further down, the page confirms the New York store will be opening on October 20th.
The “popup” reference seems to indicate that this will be a temporary store. That’s in contrast to Apple and Microsoft, who both have permanent footholds in New York. Still, it’s a notable move on Google’s part. Following its earlier “Made by Google” marketing materials — which included billboard posters and mysterious, rectangular statues — the company seems serious about advertising its new hardware. That’s important if Google is going to fight Apple’s iPhone and Amazon’s Echo effectively. As we’ve seen with companies like Sony and HTC, it’s not enough to simply build great products — they have to be marketed heavily too.
Google has experimented with stores before. While Google Glass was still a curiosity, the company experimented with some showroom-style installations. Since then, it’s also set up a store-within-a-store as part of a Currys PC World in London. A retail presence like Apple’s seems unlikely — but that could soon change if the Pixel struggles in carrier stores.
Via: The Next Web
Source: Made by Google
Google puts fitness playlists in Runtastic’s Android app
If Google Play Music and Runtastic are your favorite running companions, this collab was meant for you. The Big G’s Play Music division has teamed up with Runtastic to put free workout playlists within the Adidas-owned fitness app itself. All you need to do is fire up its music section to access, say, a collection of 130-beats-per-minute tracks that can match your steps, electronic dance music or high-energy rock tunes. You’ll be able to pause, play and skip within Runtastic, so you won’t need to switch apps anymore.
Now, if you’ve been using Play Music mostly as a free, ad-supported service, this partnership also gives you the chance to try out the features only available to paying subscribers. You can get two months Play Music subscription for free if you’re a Runtastic user, whether you have an iPhone or an Android device. 
Source: Google, Runtastic (Google Play)
Verizon has final say over when its Pixels get Android updates
Verizon is pretty pleased to be Google’s sole US carrier partner for the new Pixel and Pixel XL. Sure, you could order one straight from Google, but nothing sates gadget lust like being able to walk into a store and buy a thing right there. Buying a Verizon model obviously won’t be for everyone, though, and we now have a clearer understanding of how those phones will — and could — differ from the ones you can order from Google.
If you’re concerned about keeping your Pixel secure, Google has your back. A Verizon spokesperson confirmed that their Pixels will get security updates and patches at the same time as the non-Verizon versions. Not bad.
Still, it’s a little troubling that Google and Verizon have been cagey about when Verizon Pixel owners will get more substantive Android software updates. One of the best parts of using Nexus devices in the past was the understanding that they would get updates straight from Google, well before carrier-branded phones did. That practice will continue with Google’s new Pixel phones, but Verizon’s software certification process could introduce some delays into the mix. Carriers in general can take ages to test software updates, making sure they (among other things) don’t adversely affect the network. Google has pushed carriers to reduce that lag, and a Bloomberg report from earlier this year claims Verizon has trimmed its testing time by “a few weeks.”
Google has confirmed that Verizon is handling software updates for the phones it sells, so the biggest question here is one of time. Verizon wouldn’t comment on the specific update schedules for their Pixels, though a spokesperson for said the company’s goal “is to always provide software updates in a timely fashion so our customers have the best experience.” Take that however you like. Hopefully there is no gap between when Verizon and non-Verizon Pixels get those big updates, but it’s a little troubling that no one is coming out and committing to it. For now, we’ll just have to wait and hope.
At least bloatware shouldn’t be a huge issue. Verizon has said that the Pixel and Pixel XL will only have three apps — My Verizon, Verizon Messages and the Go90 streaming service — that straight-from-Google devices don’t. What’s really interesting is how they get on your phone in the first place. None of them are technically preloaded onto the phones. Instead, they’re downloaded onto the Pixels during the setup and activation process. Not at fan? You can uninstall them at will, leaving you with a mostly pure Pixel or Pixel XL to play with. That’s a surprisingly hands-off approach for a carrier that usually bars users from uninstalling Verizon apps on more heavily branded devices — the best you can typically do is disable apps you didn’t want in the first place.
Does anyone want to buy Twitter?
At the end of September, the list of reported potential suitors for Twitter included Apple, Disney, Google and Salesforce. Based on new reports from Recode and CNBC, it sounds like none of those companies are interested in buying the social network at this point. Recode’s sources indicated this week that Google wasn’t preparing to make a bid and that Apple wasn’t likely to do so either. It followed that up with a report that Disney, after exploring a potential proposal, wouldn’t move forward with an official offer. Twitter’s shareholders surely aren’t happy about those big names withdrawing interest as the company’s stock fell 9 percent yesterday.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff downplayed his company’s interest in Twitter during an interview with CNBC yesterday as well. The chief executive said that while he considers a lot of potential acquisitions, he ultimately decides to pass on most of them. Benioff didn’t comment specifically on Twitter, but noted that “it’s in our interest to look at everything.”
According to Reuters, Twitter wants to wrap the sale process by October 27th, the day it’s scheduled to announce its Q3 earnings. That news follows a Bloomberg article that detailed the internal battle at Twitter over the potential sale, including that CEO Jack Dorsey is reportedly holding up the process because he wants the company to remain independent. Twitter does have some untapped potential on top of its social network and newly cemented live video push, but it looks like getting a deal done before the end of the month may be a lot harder than it seemed just a week ago.
Google wanted to sell intelligent robot arms (but didn’t)
Google (and parent company Alphabet) build a lot more hardware than fancy new smartphones and AI assistants — it’s just that a lot of it doesn’t make it out of the lab. Take these advanced robotic arms, for example: Alphabet’s robotics group built the arms, which were used in a research project to show how Google’s software helps robots learn from each other over time. But despite their apparent usefulness, Alphabet CEO Larry Page decided to cancel plans to sell the hardware because it failed Page’s “toothbrush test.” As Bloomberg reports, Page only wants to ship products that could be used daily by billions of people, and these robotic arms are significantly more niche than that.
At the time the robot arms were built, the robotics division was part of Google, but near the end of the year the group was moved under Alphabet and plans to sell the arms to manufacturing companies and similar operations were nixed. It’s a move that caused frustration within the robotics group, which felt that Alphabet has a tendency to be too cautious with its more experimental ventures.
“It was still a prototype, but it had a lot of advantages,” James Kuffner, chief technology officer at the Toyota Research Institute and previous lead of Google’s robotics unit, said to Bloomberg. “The team worked really hard. If it had been entirely up to me I would have shipped it. But it was not.”
It’s an example of what some at Alphabet apparently feel is a trend for the company to put smaller projects on hold in the chase for a “moonshot” that’ll have a huge impact — if it works. It’s illustrative of the conflict within Alphabet: Google has some of the most popular and widely-used products around, so releasing any product associated with the brand runs a risk of tarnishing its reputation (just look what happened with Google Glass).
That’s not to say that projects like the robotic arm are a waste — Google’s clearly been using them to learn more about how robots can collectively learn based on the behaviors of other robots, something that fits right in with the company’s focus on machine learning. But in terms of turning the hardware into revenue generating hardware, these arms seem to land pretty far from the toothbrush-level ubiquity that Page looks for.
Source: Bloomberg
Google Pixel XL vs Samsung Galaxy Note 7 first look
Google has taken the wraps off the Pixel XL, their new flagship handset, so it is only natural to compare it to one of our all-time favorite series. In this post we are putting the new Google Pixel XL right up against the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Shall we get started?
Right off the bat you can tell these are two very different smartphones. The Google Pixel XL brings forth a style we have grown very used to in the industry. It has a metal design and a sleek body that has become a standard in the high-end market. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 sports the same metal edge and glass front and back currently recognizable in all the latest Samsung handsets.
But that is all looks, right? Which one looks and feels best is a matter of preference. What we can tell you more about is resistance. The Google Pixel XL rocks an IP53 rating, which makes it dust and splash resistant. Meanwhile, Samsung goes all out with an IP68 rating – it is dust tight and can be immersed in water up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 also has that now-iconic curve along the edges of the front. This doesn’t do too much in terms of functionality, but it does make the phone feel thinner and more comfortable in the hand. The Google Pixel XL is also a beauty to hold, though. It’s just a matter of whether you like metal or glass better. What we can say is that the Google Pixel XL feels very solid. It is manufactured by HTC, after all. Samsung phones do tend to feel a little more fragile.
In terms of color choices both handsets have a few, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will grant more options. Sammy’s handset comes in Silver, Gold Platinum, Blue Coral, Black Onyx. Meanwhile, Google’s new phone has three variants: Very Silver, Quite Black and Really Blue (yes, that’s what they are calling these colors).
USB Type-C continues to become the standard and now we can see both handset featuring the new port. It can still be hard to adapt to it, due to lack of adoption, but it is the future and does provide certain improvements. A reversible connector, faster transfer speeds and better compatibility are only a few examples.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 comes with a slightly larger screen, but the quality turns out to be nearly as good in both cases. Google’s Pixel XL features a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a 2560×1440 resolution, while Samsung’s phablet touts a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED panel with the same definition.
High-end specs can only get so good nowadays, and both phones are nearing the current threshold.
In terms of performance we should see nearly identical results. High-end specs can only get so good nowadays, and both phones are nearing the current threshold. The Pixel features a powerful Snapdragon 821 processor with 4 GB of RAM, and the Note 7 is not far behind with its Exynos 8890. But when it comes to internal storage the Google Pixel XL has the upper hand, as it comes in variations of 32 and 128 GB. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is limited to a single 64 GB version.
Things change once we start considering external memory, though. Google has built no expandable storage support into the new Pixel phones, and Samsung’s device can take microSD cards.
Battery life should also be pretty similar, as both phones feature nearly identical specs. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 does have a bigger 3,500 mAh battery, but it only beats the Pixel XL by 50 mAh. The Galaxy Note 7 does win this round too, though, as it has better options for charging. Both come with fast-charging capabilities, but this time around Google is doing away with wireless charging, something many of us consider disappointing.
Shall we talk security? These handsets have great fingerprint readers with super fast recognition, but Samsung is bringing something interesting to the table – an iris scanner, which uses a dedicated camera near the selfie cam to search for a registered set of eyes to unlock the phone.
At first sight it may seem like these cameras are very similar, but there are a few key differences to be noted. The 12.3 MP Pixel XL camera has no OIS, but does promise large pixels (better light intake), super fast laser auto-focus, an f/2.0 aperture, slow motion and 4K video capture.
See also: Shootout: How good is the new Pixel XL camera?54
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 doesn’t fall behind, though, and some may say it is better. Its 12 MP sensor does have a better f/1.7 aperture, optical image stabilization and a dual pixel set-up for improved light intake. You can be sure we will be testing sample photos further. For now we really can’t pass judgement on which is better.
Overall, the user experience of these phones will predicate on Android and multitasking preferences. The Note 7 has a myriad of features to boast, including all of the different methods of multitasking that include the Multi Window and the Pop-Up View – and, of course, the S Pen brings its own very long list of features to the fold. Sharing is easier than ever in the Note, with tools like Screen Write, the Notes application that consolidates pretty much all ways of working with digital notes, and the Smart Select that now has a tool for recording 15 second GIFs of (almost) anything that is going on in the given frame. And for the users who need a constant reminder of any piece of information, the Screen Off Memo can pin notes to the Always on Display so that it is constantly within view.
Also read:
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL hands-on
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL vs the competition
The Google Pixel XL is limited by what the vanilla Android experience has to offer. It is a better option for those who prefer a cleaner experience with no bells and whistles, but we also can’t deny Samsung’s improvements have proven to be very convenient to many of you. One thing is for sure, the UI on Google’s software will be easier on the eyes and much more simplified.
The huge benefit Pixel users get is the promise of quick Android updates. Remember this is the replacement to the Nexus brand, which promises to keep you on the bleeding edge of Android software. And I must say, Android Nougat is so far quite delightful, bringing a lot of refinements to what we are used to in Marshmallow, including better ways of handling tasks and notifications as well as a bit more eye candy to please the design-minded.
The Pixel XL also packs a couple of features that are going to stay exclusive to it: the most important is Google Assistant, the greatly improved replacement to Google Now. But you also get unlimited original format photo and video storage, an integrated support app, and a customized launcher you won’t see on other devices.
Now, let’s talk money. The Google Pixel XL starts from $769, which is expensive, but then the Note 7 is even more pricey, costing as much as $900 at US carriers.
See also: Here’s where you can buy a Google Pixel in the US18
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 does show some advantages, mainly in software optimization, an iris scanner, S-Pen features and certain camera specs, but the Google Pixel XL offers performance, a clean software, Google Assistant, a metal construction and timely updates for what could be a slightly lower price point. Android purists will definitely choose Google’s phone any day.
But tell us what you think! Which phone will you go for?
Google Pixel XL vs Nexus 6P first look
Google has now taken the wraps off the Pixel XL, leaving behind the Nexus family in favor of a new direction that sees Google more directly compete against Samsung and Apple in the smartphone hardware game. The new Pixel XL brings a lot to the table, but how does it compare to its predecessor?
Let’s take a look as we put the the Pixel XL up against the Huawei-built Nexus 6P in this quick comparison.
Aesthetically speaking, the Pixel XL and Nexus 6P have little in common in common, other than perhaps the use of metallic unibody designs and the circular fingerprint scanner found on the rear.
The Google Pixel XL offers up a unibody metal design that features a unique area of glass of the rear that starts around the fingerprint reader and stretches to the top. A subtle “G” can be found at the bottom, with no oversized logos or markings in sight. The front of the phone is completely devoid of buttons, with just a single speaker at the top middle, a sensor below, and the front-facing camera found to the left. Below the display is a pretty sizable chin, where honestly we would have liked to have seen a secondary speaker.
See also: Google Pixel and Pixel XL hands on34
Turning to the Nexus 6P, the Nexus is a bit larger and heavier than the Pixel XL, but it is a bit slimmer for what it is worth. Just like the Pixel, the phone is a unibody metallic device, but instead of the partially glass back, the 6P instead offers a unique camera “wedge.” Otherwise, the back is pretty plain with simple Nexus branding and a circular fingerprint scanner in the middle. One area that the Nexus 6P stands triumphantly over the Pixel is the front-side, thanks to its dual speaker configuration.
At the end of the day, both phones take an otherwise ordinary metallic design and add a little extra flair. With the 6P, it’s the camera bump. With the Pixel, it’s a half-glass backing. We suspect the Pixel’s design will be met with split reception, similar to the 6P before it, but really it comes down to personal preference as to which design is more appealing.
Both the Pixel XL and Nexus 6P offer QHD AMOLED displays, though this time around Google has shrunk the size down to 5.5-inches from the 5.7-inch size of the 6P. The smaller size means the Pixel XL will have slightly higher PPI, but overall you’re looking at pretty similar viewing experiences with all the characteristics you’d expect from an AMOLED panel.
Performance favors the newer phone, which is expected. The Pixel XL features the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, paired with 4GB RAM. Of course, the Nexus 6P is no slouch with its Snapdragon 810 and 3GB RAM, either. Though the processing package isn’t the latest or greatest anymore, it is more than capable of providing a great Android experience.
If you’re looking for plenty of storage options, the Pixel XL will probably disappoint a little, as your choices are between either 32GB or 128GB. In contrast, the 6P offered 32, 64, and 128GB configurations. Neither phone offers expandable memory, but that’s pretty much expected from Google. It is worth noting that the Pixel XL does include free unlimited storage of videos and pictures at full resolution.
Battery life will likely be fairly similar between these two phones, with both offering 3450mAh battery configurations. Both phones also feature quick charging and USB type-C. Whether the Snapdragon 821 offers any noticeable battery optimizations over the Snapdragon 810 remains unseen, but we’ll be sure to put the phone through its paces once we get our review unit.
The Nexus 6P completely raised the bar on what to expect from the Nexus family in terms of camera performance. Offering less megapixels in favor of larger ones, the 6P offered a 12MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture that prioritized low light performance. The end result was a pretty solid camera overall.
See also: Shootout: How good is the new Pixel XL camera?50
A similar story plays out with the Pixel XL, which features a 12.MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture and 1.55 μm sized pixels. On paper, this is a very similar configuration to the 6P. While we won’t be able to definitively say how the cameras compare until we’ve done a full review, it is worth noting that DxOmark has rated the Pixel XL with an 89 — beating out the Nexus 6P, Galaxy S7, and the iPhone 7 and receiving the highest mark from the company to date.
Like the Nexus 6P, at the heart of the Pixel XL is a stock Android experience. That said, Google has been less shy about adding on special features this time around. Out of the box the Pixel XL features Android 7.1 Nougat with the new Pixel launcher preloaded. Swiping up from the dock brings up the app drawer and circles are more the motif for this launcher. Another Google G is in plain view at the top, opening up a familiar Google Now search bar.
But the real star of the show is Google Assistant, now baked right into the OS. Previously found within the Allo application, the latest iteration offers a greatly improved experience over what you’d find with Google Now. Asking it contextual questions yields clear, accurate answers. For example, I asked Assistant to play me wrestler TJ Perkins’ entrance from WWE. Once I said the request, Youtube appeared and played the video in question.
The fast, fluid stock experience is alive and well on the Nexus 6P as well, with Android 7.0 Nougat currently being the latest version on offer. While the experience is largely identical, Pixel Launcher and the baked in Google Assistant are not part of the formula here. While it’s possible these new features will come to the Nexus family in some form down the road, for now these special extras remain something you’ll only be able to experience with a Pixel.
In many ways, the Pixel XL and Nexus 6P share a lot of the same DNA, despite offering different looks and different overall approaches. After all, they both run mostly stock Android software and have been built with Google’s influence. Still, the Pixel represents a big leap forward with Google not just influencing the software and hardware, but instead fully controlling it.
Pricing is another area where the two phones greatly differ. While the Nexus 6P could be had for just $399, the Google Pixel XL’s premium specs and features start at $769. It remains a matter of debate whether the Pixel XL offers enough improvements to justify that price hike, but it’s clear that Google wants to send a very different message with the Pixel family than it did with the Nexus line before it.
See also: Google Pixel & Pixel XL vs the competition101
The Pixel XL is an evolution of the Nexus formula, a device where Google doesn’t just control the software experience, but has equal power over the hardware. For Google fans looking for a phone built from the ground up with Google’s intentions and full blessing, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Reuters: Twitter seeks a sale decision by October 27th
Twitter’s flat growth and falling profits made for a dim outlook until a few weeks ago when sources close to the social media platform said that Google, Salesforce and other tech luminaries were looking to buy it. The company’s stock jumped 20 percent that day, and speculation has continued as to which would be the best buyer. But it seems time is of the essence: Twitter wants to conclude sale deliberations before October 27th, the day it reports its third quarter earnings, sources told Reuters.
Binding acquisition offers are due in two weeks, the sources noted. Salesforce is in the running, which could mine Twitter’s data for business intel, while Disney might make a bid to use its social media platform to boost outreach for its programming. While Google was considered a prominent potential buyer, separate sources told Recode that the search giant won’t make a bid. Apple isn’t likely to enter the fray either.
But it’s possible that even Twitter isn’t solid on what Twitter wants to do. Bloomberg reported today that three head executives are split: CEO Jack Dorsey wants to remain independent, co-founder Ev Williams wants to sell, with chief financial officer Anthony Noto stepped in to seize more control of the company amid Dorsey’s passive leadership.
But this whole process might not even result in a sale, Reuters’ sources cautioned. Regardless, concluding negotiations with any buyer before October 27th is an incredibly aggressive deadline. At the very least, it will likely define where Twitter is going before it has to report what is likely its 12th consecutive quarter without producing net profit as a public company.
Source: Reuters
Personal assistants are ushering in the age of AI at home
Google Home is the latest embodiment of a virtual assistant. The voice-activated speaker can help you make a dinner reservation, remind you to catch your flight, fire up your favorite playlist and even translate words for you on the fly. While the voice interface is expected to make quotidian tasks easier, it also gives the company unprecedented access to human patterns and preferences that are crucial to the next phase of artificial intelligence.
Comparing an AI agent to a personal assistant, as most companies have been doing of late, makes for a powerful metaphor. It is one that is indicative of the human capabilities that most major technology companies want their disembodied helpers to adopt. Over the last couple of years, with improvements in speech-recognition technology, Siri, Cortana and Google Now have slowly learned to move beyond the basics of weather updates to take on more complex responsibilities like managing your calendar or answering your queries. But products that invade our personal spaces — like Amazon’s Echo and Google Home — point to a larger shift in human-device interaction that is currently underway.
Onstage demos of Google Home, which has the company’s assistant built into it, suggest a conversational capability that requires an advanced understanding of human intent and context. The device relies almost entirely on the company’s speech-recognition technology that has been in the making for almost a decade, since the early days of GOOG 411. But over the years, the basic telephone-based directory search has grown into the much more complex Google Now.
Amazon’s Echo ecosystem relies on virtual assistant Alexa to respond to voice commands.
The drastic jump in the Android assistant’s capabilities has come from neural net training and deep learning techniques that have allowed scientists to boost speech-recognition technology to a point where it is now starting to learn the nuances of human behavior through the medium of voice.
Using the voice to communicate with an outside entity makes for an intimate and innately human experience. “Speech is the most dominant way that humanity has been communicating with each other,” David Nahamoo, speech CTO at IBM Research, said over the phone. “When we communicate with the outside, we speak. But from outside to inside, we absorb information a lot better visually. It’s because of our heritage and the evolution that we have gone through. From the standpoint of efficiency, speech is quickest way to get a point across.”
“Voice changes the way people interact with their systems.” – Françoise Beaufays, Google
Devices like Echo and Google Home, for instance, are built on speech recognition that can help you stay heads-up and hands-free while you multitask around the house. So instead of spending time swiping and typing, you can tell the personal assistant what you need or what you’re looking for. It’s that kind of ease and productivity that companies dangle in front of the users to have them adopt chatbots and personal assistants in their daily communications, but talking to devices also opens the door to a new kind of relationship.
“I think voice changes the way people interact with their systems,” says Françoise Beaufays, a research scientist who works on speech recognition at Google. “For a long time when people were typing in their browsers for information, they would write something cryptic like ‘Eiffel Tower height,’ for example.” The string of seemingly random words would instantly pull up search results on google.com with pictures, details and dimensionrs of the iconic French structure. But when speech recognition started to take shape with smartphone assistants, Beaufays says there was a clear change in communication.
“As people started feeling comfortable with speech, instead of being cryptic they started saying: ‘Hey, what is the height of the Eiffel Tower?’ or ‘How tall is the Eiffel Tower?’,” she says. “We saw that switch in the way people were addressing their devices in speech first and typing next. Using your voice is bringing in more discursive type of interaction, and even though you know very well it’s a machine you behave a little more human with it.”
A still from the movie Her (2013), directed by Spike Jonze.
While a verbal exchange with a virtual assistant can make it easier to get things done, it also makes it easier for the companies to gain invaluable insight into the human world that’s filled with vocal clues to feelings and preferences. “We’re going from computing to understanding,” says James Barrat, author of Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era. “It’s not just us chatting. These machines are listening to what we like and don’t like, how we speak and what we speak about. It’s greater access to how we think.”
In the world of AI, data is the currency that will set one company apart from the other. Through voice searches, millions of vocal samples become available to the companies that are fine-tuning personal assistants. The stream of information is fed back into the system to improve the accuracy of the algorithms, but it also gives the companies access to the complexities of human intent. In effect, using the voice to communicate with an AI helper only makes it smarter.
A lot can be gleaned from the vocal communication. Words and intonations start to give away user patterns, preferences and even emotions over time. That kind of insight into the mindset of the user is critical to the next wave of personalized AI that is already taking shape at companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook.
Smart talking AIs at home will fire up the ecosystem of the Internet of Things, taking it from novelty machines to necessities. With companies aspiring to make their assistants omnipresent and their machines more interconnectable, they need capable speech recognition to get the job done.
“There’s a parallel thrust,” says Vlad Sejnoha, CTO at Nuance Communications, one of the leaders in voice-recognition technologies. “You’ll interact with your smart fridge or printer in a more natural way but also see a portable personal assistant that lives in a cloud and follows you around to help you navigate a complex world.” Google Home, much like Amazon’s Echo, already comes with partnerships that are useful around the house. You can use the speaker to control your Chromecast, Nest and Philips Hue lights.
In addition to navigating the immediate physical world, an omnipresent assistant could potentially become a gateway to unfamiliar settings or foreign languages too. In the spot aired during the Google event this week, the company demonstrated that Home has the ability to tap Google Translate to respond with accurate translations from English to Spanish. But whether the machine can comprehend foreign accents and translate the reverse, remains to be seen.
“Having an AI that is your agent and helps you exist in the world better, gets you better information and services is hugely exciting.” – Vlad Sejnoha, Nuance Communications
Failing to comprehend different accents has been one of the biggest downfalls of most digital assistants on smartphones today. Scientists building these systems often talk about the lack of data as one of the biggest obstacles to understanding new accents and languages. The copious amounts of information required to make that possible calls for massive investments from the companies. Taking the technology straight to people’s homes opens up a steady stream of data that can be used for tests back in the research labs.
A lot of the building blocks are starting to fall into place for devices like Google Home to become efficient personal assistants. And even though, there’s a need to be more vigilant of the ways human-device interactions are starting to shift; most voice interface developers believe it’s a necessary change that will extend human capabilities.
“Having an AI that is your agent and helps you exist in the world better, gets you better information and services is hugely exciting,” says Sejnoha. “As with anything there are uses that can be negative, we’re all familiar with privacy and mining data. That’s something we have to be thoughtful about, but the benefits far outweigh those scenarios.”
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