iPod, iPhone, AI assistants
The iPod made digital music suitable for the masses, and the iPhone changed communication, navigation, media use and everyday life. Fadell sees a similar threshold for AI assistants. It’s not just about better language models, but about a new way of living and working with technology. Fadell describes the decisive advantage not as operating the best and most powerful model, but rather the overall context is decisive. A single cloud service only ever sees excerpts, whereas iPhones and other Apple devices see half of the user’s life. Countless individual pieces of information create a much more complete picture, on the basis of which an assistant can act more helpfully. Fadell coins the term “Federation of Devices” for this interaction.
The choice of assistant is of great importance
This is exactly where Fadell draws conclusions. If a next-generation AI assistant knows not only search queries but also work, routines, contacts, health, whereabouts, interests and weaknesses, the choice of the preferred provider is much more profound than choosing a specific search engine. If Siri AI and Co. intervene so significantly in personal data, devices and everyday processes, the question of freedom of choice immediately arises – i.e. whether and to whom one would like to entrust the information.
“Dark sides need to be discussed earlier this time”
Fadell draws another parallel to the iPhone. Back then, people didn’t ask enough questions about what smartphones did to human connection – things like smartphone addiction, distraction and social isolation were not an issue. With AI, however, the industry has a responsibility to raise such questions earlier. An assistant who knows the user better than most people, is always available, never judgmental and endlessly patient could become very powerful, perhaps even too powerful. In his opinion, these dark sides, including the addictive potential, are not discussed enough at the moment.