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Ten years ago, after selling Siri to Apple, the creators of the voice-controlled AI assistant had another big idea.
With their new company, Viv, they tried to solve a common problem for mobile users: How to complete daily tasks without switching between multiple apps. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to switch between different tours, hotels and maps when planning your vacation, and instead you could rely on an app that had it all together?
Viv never did as he wanted and was later folded into Samsung’s AI assistant, Bixby. But in technology, good ideas never die: They simply await the advancement of the underlying technology to make them happen. Like many other things, this advancement has come in the form of major languages.
Creating what is essentially a new layer of digital plumbing between apps and websites like this doesn’t sound like an adulterous use of AI. But it could lead to major changes in the way people use technology and shift power in the tech industry.
AI assistants that work on behalf of users is a modern phenomenon. Empowering them to use different apps, websites and digital services can have a huge impact.
AI startup Anthropic, for example, recently demonstrated an AI system that uses computer systems in the same way a human would. The demonstration, which it called Computer Applications, demonstrated the technology of extracting information from various sources to fill out an online form – the kind of routine, low-level work that takes up many days of office workers.
The idea of using software that mimics exactly what an employee does on their computer has been around in different ways for years. Known as robotic process automation, or RPA, it involves creating “robots” to perform tasks that perform a variety of tasks. The natural language capabilities of artificial intelligence have given this concept new life. Anthropic’s technology is designed to allow you to use a computer like a human would, although the software isn’t particularly adept at simple computer tasks like scrolling.
For many office workers, tasks like these that replace traditional computer-based tasks may be the first demonstration of artificial intelligence. Matt Garman, head of Amazon Web Services, described his company’s recent efforts to coordinate work between AI support teams to complete complex tasks as “RPA on steroids”.
The closest thing to Viv’s idea of integrating software into the consumer world, meanwhile, has come from Apple. Known as App Objectives, it would require developers to adapt their apps to work with Apple’s AI, allowing the app to work between apps without the user having to open it.
The ramifications of this seemingly prosaic idea can be huge. If an AI assistant or assistant can access any information or functionality you need to complete a task, you can open fewer apps, visit fewer websites and use fewer digital inputs. In fact, this can limit a person’s digital experience to a few places.
One result may be the urgency of software developers to ensure that they remain one of the first sites that continue to manage user interest and serve as the end-to-end service, rather than risk seeing their software turned into service providers.
Ultimately, a handful of AI-powered assistants, acting like automated superapps, will dominate. If that’s the case, it could suck the value of most standalone apps, since users don’t re-open them or shower them with interest.
This presents programmers with a problem. Opening up their services to the AI of big tech companies would mean losing their direct relationship with users. But trying to isolate themselves could result in them being shut out of the new digital ecosystem that can be integrated around AI assistants.
For them, in the meantime, the big tech companies will be able to ensure that there is a smooth connection between their AI assistants and their software, giving people more reasons to gravitate towards their technology.
This will create a new challenge for antitrust regulators. As they begin to realize how big platforms lead users to their homes – known as love – a new technology can emerge that connects technology users more to the digital products of Big Tech. .
