Radically simplifying the world
Siri, Cortana, and Alexa, you’d better watch out. Your little sister, Viv is about to upstage you.
Viv was unveiled at the recent Disrupt NYC event, a conference for debuting new technologies and startups. Viv is an artificial intelligence platform introduced by Viv Labs of San Jose, which is run by Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, the developers who crafted the artificial intelligence for popular personal assistant Siri.
Viv Labs says its mission is “radically simplifying the world” by making AI work for us.
The super personal assistant
If Viv can do everything that her makers promise, she stands to not only compete with, but entirely replace other personal assistants.
While Siri can answer basic questions, Viv promises to answer much more complicated questions, and can interact with third party services, such as businesses.
Said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, “Viv is more than just an evolutionary step in the development of personal assistants. It’s a game changer.”
Theoretically, Viv will be able to complete complex interactions and sales transactions. For example, you could tell Viv to book you a flight on a certain day, and Viv will automatically select your favorite airline, apply your frequent flyer miles, and book you a window or aisle seat, depending on your preference.
Still some work to be done
With AI bots taking on more and more functions, Olds predicts that personal assistants like Viv are “going to advance much further into our everyday lives.” Bots like Viv will continuously improve because they “will be able to learn more about you over time and become even more helpful.”
Other experts, however, say we have a long way to go before AI bots become intelligent enough to learn our preferences and complete complex transactions.
Judith Hurwitz, an analyst from Hurwitz & Associates, LLC, thinks that getting Viv ready for customers “will require continuous deep learning.” She went on to predict “that it will be years before these types of systems are ubiquitous.”
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