AI 5: AI Personal Assistants are emerging on the market but they still lack adequate IQ and then there is the question of trust!

Any Cloud Device that can display an Avatar talking head will deliver AI. This picture shows one called Ultra Hal Assistant which is a digital secretary and all-around e-buddy.

The Ultra Hal Assistant is described as a digital secretary that uses AI to understand spoken English commands and to learn over time. The claim is that Ultra Hal can remember anything you tell it, automatically dial phone numbers, remind you of appointments, do Web searches, launch applications, etc. etc.

In reality, such AI tends to be limited in its ability to learn. However, it should cope with simple commands especially related to orchestrating known tasks.

There is no doubt that Avatars with conversational capabilities, sometimes known as Chatterbots, will become pervasive once the big issue of AI learning has been properly overcome.

One of several AI issues is that it does not have the equivalent of human judgement to avoid over learning to prevent decision distortions and decay. Instinctively, humans are better placed to know when to stop learning something to avoid diminishing returns and possible contamination to their sense-making framework. Classic AI is the opposite as it can start with say a meaningful conversation, but after a while the learning excesses contaminates its reasoning. So it’s quite feasible to begin a normal conversation with an Avatar, which then becomes a blithering idiot at any moment in time. The realisation of this fundamental flaw raises both moral and ethical issues. The fear of AI telling lies without any inherent notion of doing right or wrong is regarded by many as a risk too far.

Once these problems have been overcome then Ultra Hal Assistants or equivalents will become pervasive leading to Web 4.0 and Web 5.0 (refer to blog reference AI 1).