AI Voice - Commands, Conversations, and Understanding

This article explores the sudden improvements of AI’s vocal chords and ability to comprehend what we say. I think it’s more than just a new gimmick. I got AI to summarise this article so you don’t have to.

• Voice AI has leveled up big time. It's gone from a clunky robot voice to actually getting what you mean when you talk. It's like your phone suddenly became a good listener.

• AI is turning into our digital buddy. Get this - OpenAI's voice tech even breathes like a real person! We're not just bossing our gadgets around anymore; we're starting to chat with them like friends.

• This human-like AI is pretty cool, but it's also kinda mind-bending. It might change how we work, who we hang out with, and even how we think about what makes us human. Wild, right?

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Remember when talking to your phone made you feel like a lunatic? Those days are fading faster than a New Year's resolution. Voice AI has gone from party trick to indispensable assistant quicker than you can say "Hey Siri, why are you so useless?"

The moment ChatGPT started understanding voice, it was like upgrading from dial-up to optical fibre. Why had I been so tolerant of Google and Siri's robotic shenanigans for so long? Suddenly, my AI assistant wasn't just listening; it was comprehending. Mind. Blown.

The Dark Ages of Voice AI

Let's take a cringe-worthy trip down memory lane, shall we? The early days of voice AI were about as smooth as a gravel road.

Remember Google Assistant? You couldn't just ask, "Message Will” Oh no. You had to channel your inner robot: "OK Google, send William Huynh a message via WhatsApp" It was like trying to order coffee in a foreign language with a phrase book from the last century.

And the response time? You could write a novel waiting for an answer. More often than not, you'd hear the AI equivalent of "Huh?": "I didn't quite get that, could you please repeat it?" It wasn't a conversation; it was an exercise in frustration management.

A Big Leap Forward

Fast forward to today. AI doesn't just listen; it remembers. It's like having a conversation with that friend who never forgets a detail. They get it wrong sometimes – but impressive nonetheless, and slightly unnerving.

The game-changer in my opinion? These new models understand speech, not just text. They get that a pause doesn't mean you're done talking. They understand when you're correcting yourself mid-sentence. They pick up on tone, pace, and volume. It's not just what you say; it's how you say it. AI now gets context. Finally, I say.

Take Google's Gemini Live that just recently announced. You can interrupt it mid-sentence. It's like talking to a real person, minus the eye-rolling when you cut them off.

And personalisation? It's gone beyond "Here are some restaurants you might like" to "Based on your mood, dietary restrictions, and that fight you had with your boss today, here's what you should eat." Creepy? Maybe. Useful? Absolutely.

Midjourney, an image generation application, is doing something similar but with pictures. Tell it your preferences, and it'll churn out visuals that match your vibe. It's like having a mind-reading artist at your beck and call.

Then there's OpenAI's advanced voice feature. It's so human-like, it even takes breaths. I wouldn't be surprised if it starts asking for water breaks soon. It's getting so good, we might need "I'm not a robot" checkboxes for humans. Especially as these AIs will begin to spend more time speaking to other AIs than humans. The irony!

Voice Commands to AI Companions

As voice AI has gotten better, it's not just changing how we interact with our devices – it's redefining the nature of those interactions. We're moving from simple commands to AIs starting to understand us on a weirdly human level. Welcome to the uncanny valley.

And get this, AI is slowly but surely graduating from being tools. They’re becoming more like companions. We've gone from "Siri, what's 2+2?" to having in-depth discussions about our day, our goals, and even our existential crises. My parents would have thought I was crazy.

See Friend ai. They've launched a digital companion that's equal parts fascinating and equal parts unsettling. It aims to solve one of humanity's biggest problems: loneliness. Sure, it's a bit Black Mirror-esque, but so was online dating once upon a time. Now half of us can't remember how we met our partners without checking our Tinder history.

What does this mean for the workplace? AI isn't just the intern doing the grunt work anymore. It's becoming the colleague you spitball ideas with. It brainstorms, it suggests, it manages tasks (Coming soon). It's like having a super-smart coworker who never steals your lunch from the office fridge.

Peering into the Opaque Crystal Ball

Looking ahead, we're on the brink of AI born with some semblance of EQ. Maybe not truest sense, but imagine customer service reps who know what to say, how to say it, and can actually make you feel better about your lost luggage. Qantas, take some hints here. Or mental health support that doesn't sound like it's reading from a script.

But with great power, comes great complexity. Who should be responsible is a whole new topic for another time.

As AI gets more human-like, rational, and emotional, we need to ask some hard questions. How much should we rely on AI for? Where's the line between helpful and "I'm in a relationship with my phone"?

The job market's in for a shake-up too. As AI gets chattier and smarter, some jobs might go the way of the dinosaurs. But hey, who knew "Chief Metaverse Officer" would be a thing? We adapt. We evolve. We create new job titles that end up making our parents no longer understand what we actually do.

The Bottom Line

We're not just teaching machines to talk; we're teaching them to think, feel, and understand. It's not about barking commands at a glorified speaker anymore. It's about coexisting with AI in a way that makes our lives richer, not just easier.

The future? It's conversational. It's personal. It's AI that doesn't just serve us but gets us.

So, what am I planning to be doing? I'll be talking to the tech like it's my newest, coolest friend. I’ll be working with it. Because soon enough, given my track record of maintaining relationships, it might just be.

After all, in this brave new world of AI besties and digital colleagues, the real question isn't "Can AI understand us?" It's "Can we understand ourselves?" Now that's a conversation worth having – with or without AI assistance.