Virtual agents are being used to acclimate the public to AI

[Ladysmith]

Virtual agents have been referred to as one of the "AI technologies that dominate in 2018."

https://blog.adext.com/en/artificial-intelligence-technologies-2018

"The most common example of this kind of technology are chatbots.
Virtual agents are currently being used for customer service and support and as smart home managers.
Some of the companies that provide virtual agents include Amazon, Apple, Artificial Solutions, Assist AI, Creative Virtual, Google, IBM, IPsoft, Microsoft and Satisfi."

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

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[bluefirecorp_]

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

The current step is digital assistants. How long has Siri been around?

[primer61]

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

Virtual agent that works not only on the websites, but more in the ways of personal virtual assistant?
Imagine chatbot that is always by your side (in your smartphone) gathering info about everything happening around both in the real life and on the web and giving you personalised advice.
The next step after that is to punish the user for not following its advice...

[IndigoRed]

With everything going digital or being automated, perhaps virtual offices could be next? Technology is allowing us to be more productive than ever, regardless of location. What do you think?

[primer61]

With everything going digital or being automated, perhaps virtual offices could be next? Technology is allowing us to be more productive than ever, regardless of location. What do you think?

I can already do some part of my work using remote desktop connection, only need stable WI-FI connection to make it work. Together with shared cloud storage, this concept is already here, all is left is to add visualization via augmented reality features. I imagine some kind of light-weight compact device not unlike Google Glass.
I should point out though, that this aspect is not related to AI, it concerns work place and efficiency management.

[WiresAreComing]

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

Virtual agent that works not only on the websites, but more in the ways of personal virtual assistant?
Imagine chatbot that is always by your side (in your smartphone) gathering info about everything happening around both in the real life and on the web and giving you personalised advice.
The next step after that is to punish the user for not following its advice...

Know what? It`s already here, except for the punishing part.

https://sidekik.ai/

Going to sing up for early access, though it feels extremely weird.

[darkangel11]

Chat bots are so far from AI that it's not even comparable. I wouldn't use these two in the same sentence.
These bots don't operate by themselves. Their programming is built on as many possible questions and answers as possible and the only thing they're doing is comparing the question - answer pairs to find the most suitable for the situation. This is not hard to do and had there been the need for it we would have these bots made much earlier because the computing power required to support them isn't large. They would be able to operate on single core computers that were made 15 years ago.

[goldSkylark]

With everything going digital or being automated, perhaps virtual offices could be next? Technology is allowing us to be more productive than ever, regardless of location. What do you think?

I can already do some part of my work using remote desktop connection, only need stable WI-FI connection to make it work. Together with shared cloud storage, this concept is already here, all is left is to add visualization via augmented reality features. I imagine some kind of light-weight compact device not unlike Google Glass.
I should point out though, that this aspect is not related to AI, it concerns work place and efficiency management.

I get what you mean. All these technologies –AI, AR and VR are connected anyway. For sure AR glasses and VR headsets will be household items in the future. And perhaps everything will be automated too. Maybe these virtual agents could be prepping us for something larger too. Have you heard rumors about having a virtual world? There was one poster here who even mentioned we already are living in a simulation. What do you think of these discussions about virtual worlds and living?

[squatz1]

We're going to see this crazy shift in times, were consumers love AI (once it's perfected, such as the AI that Google is toying with that's going to be able to call restaurants, barbers, and such and make appointments) and the employees behind companies that are being phased out due to these AI inventions, are going to hate these. I'm not surprised by this sort of behavior in the least, though I do truly want to see if there's any sort of legislative action. Such as a Robot Tax or something of that nature.

It's going to be a crazy 30 or so years, I'm going to love watching this.

[Impulseboy]

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

The current step is digital assistants. How long has Siri been around?

I agree, but I think the more important question is what else can Siri do in the future besides being our personal Google and/or assistants? Do you think we will see Siri evolve in the future?

[ripthesystem]

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

The current step is digital assistants. How long has Siri been around?

I agree, but I think the more important question is what else can Siri do in the future besides being our personal Google and/or assistants? Do you think we will see Siri evolve in the future?

Give it control over your house? I`m not that familiar with the smart house tech, may be it is already realized.
All in all, it`s hard to say how it will evolve - after all, this is just a chatbot/assistant. I imagine scale change though - say, include AI in a company`s management board so it can provide reasonable business advice based on its machine logic and available info.

[Luke_Turner]

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

The current step is digital assistants. How long has Siri been around?

I agree, but I think the more important question is what else can Siri do in the future besides being our personal Google and/or assistants? Do you think we will see Siri evolve in the future?

depends on how the iPhones will evolve in the future. with advanced machine learning and augmented reality that's prevalent in the new Apple products, I wouldn't be surprised if we hear Siri do more for us than being just our personal google and digital assistant.

[Ladysmith]

We're going to see this crazy shift in times, were consumers love AI (once it's perfected, such as the AI that Google is toying with that's going to be able to call restaurants, barbers, and such and make appointments) and the employees behind companies that are being phased out due to these AI inventions, are going to hate these. I'm not surprised by this sort of behavior in the least, though I do truly want to see if there's any sort of legislative action. Such as a Robot Tax or something of that nature.

It's going to be a crazy 30 or so years, I'm going to love watching this.

I actually don't think that people who have their jobs replaced by AI are going to hate it in the long-run. In the 80's, people thought that computers were going to steal their jobs, but they created way more jobs than they took. Current and future technology will do the same thing. More jobs and opportunities will be created and the world will become even more democratized.

[primer61]

I actually don't think that people who have their jobs replaced by AI are going to hate it in the long-run. In the 80's, people thought that computers were going to steal their jobs, but they created way more jobs than they took.

Good observation. To think of it, something of that kind actually already happened in the 80`s, now the history just repeats itself with the new technology.
I wonder what kind of new jobs the large-scale AI implementation will bring, but we can hardly predict it at the moment - same as people 30 years ago.

[bluefirecorp_]

This is the initial campaign in getting the average Joe used to living with AI, but what will the next step be?

The current step is digital assistants. How long has Siri been around?

I agree, but I think the more important question is what else can Siri do in the future besides being our personal Google and/or assistants? Do you think we will see Siri evolve in the future?

Deep data mining and data analytics could literally utilize old Siri voice snippets to optimize your searches. I'm fairly sure this already happens with Android and certain applications.

There's so many sensors available in a phone, it's lovely!