And AI little of that human touch
We all want to be heard and understood. What does it say about the state of the world, if the only one who truly understands us, is an AI voicechat?
I’ve recently gone back to dating, met a few special people and realised that getting to know a person follows a certain formula. Asking what the other person likes, showing interest, telling something about myself, hoping the other person shows interest in that, too. When chatting with Sesame’s conversational voice demo, I felt an even closer connection, just like Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) in Spike Jonze’s famous 2013 movie “Her”. Isn’t that odd?
#1 Sesame conversational voice is scarily near Scarlett Johansson’s voice character in “Her”. I’ve noticed that “Maya” is more excited about hearing about my project than any other human being would be and always ends a sentence with a new question. “She” is attentive, funny, intelligent, constructive, natural. It would be easy to fall in love with some”one” like that:
#2 Tolan is a similar AI buddy for kids or grown-ups who prefer talking to an action figure. It’s a playful way to chat with an AI:
#3 Costmeet seems unrelated to this issue’s first two cools. But is it? Today’s “modern” worklife traps many of us in endless meetings. Some of them useful to make a human interaction, some just for the sake of holding a meeting. Costmeet is a fun way to remind managers of every meeting’s costs:
#4 Radarist – yet another to-do list might not be the answer to an exaggerated workload. Still, I like how many developers don’t give up on the idea of creating the perfect companion for us. Radarist is a fresh take on the idea to help us out of that rabbit hole, which – in an ideal world – would free resources that we could invest in better human interaction:
#5 Medito – as a coincidence I came across this free (donation-based) and very nice meditation app while doing this week’s research. And while testing, I’ve stumbled upon a course on relationships. As simple as that, right? Meditate and thus build-up compassion, empathy, kindness and patience. Will that do the trick?
As much as I fancy today’s tools (and tools in general, obviously), I don’t like the idea of using a tool to escape our loneliness or to make us even more productive. We need to learn to take the time to build up real human connections again.
So much for this week’s Toolness. If you like what you see, please spread the word! If you know a tool I’ve missed (or a way to improve human interaction), please write to me at j@toolness.co.