Siri's Founder Dag Kittlaus Predicts The Next Big Things

The future is bright.. you don't need me or Dag to tell you that this bumpy ride is only going to get bumpier! Who knows where we'll be in 10 years time.. the last 10 years have been crazy enough as it is!

Liz Kammel wrote this article on Forbes after having lunch with Dag Kittlaus recently.

Dag believes we will all have our own virtual assistant one day. He (or she) will do everything for you – book your flight, make your hotel reservation, remind you to pick up your child from soccer, and order your next perfectly fitting jeans. There are many pieces to this puzzle for it to work. The first one is voice recognition – or Siri. The second piece is extremely deep domain expertise. For example, in order to find great jeans you have to know everything about jeans. In order to book a flight, you need many inputs and access to various websites or travel agents to do the booking.

I believe what he is getting at is that one day we will all (if we choose) have our own personal AI assistant.. an artificially intelligent microsoft paperclip.. for your day to day life.. Could be really handy, could be really annoying and imposing. Will probably be both.

Dag’s demeanor is incredibly thoughtful. He does not jump to conclusions quickly, but will ask many questions (in our case, about ZipFit.me). He also shared deeper views on the future and what will happen in our lifetime. A few highlights include:
1) A virtual assistant who does everything for you. Books your flight, buys your clothes, plans your life to whatever extent you want.
2) 3D printers. And no – not the ones that exist right now where you need inputs. My simple mathematical brain thinks you need inputs to get output – at least on the atomic level. He takes that up to another level. He sees 3D printers working where energy is the input. That means, if you have a favorite lamb dish made by, let’s say Anthony Bourdain, then you could just “print” out that dish at home on your printer. It comes out hot, medium rare just as you like it, with a side of mashed potatoes made by Masaharu Morimoto.
3) Teleportation. Yep – it’s in the works so no need for airlines. I don’t want to be the first one to test it -but our CTO, Seth, volunteered.
4) Aging Cessation. If we truly crack the code for what causes aging and can stop it – then you live for as long as you want to.

At what point do we push the boundary between sci-fi and real life? At what point do we push the boundary between creation and creator? Between mortal and immortal? Between nature and god?

Very interesting times indeed!
Forbes

reply to post by TechUnique



The first one...that will happen. The rest.....not so likely. At least, not in the next century. What he is talking about is Star Trek inventions, which are stock BS for these types of articals Will they happen one day? Possibly But not in 10 years. Especially teleportation, which I don't believe we are even currently having a clue about how to go about doing. That "quantum teleportation" has to do with information, not matter and energy.

Regardless, the first one is a definite. For example, if you currently want to put your hotel on the market for internet reservations, you enroll with a GDS, or a Global Distribution System. It is a place for buyers to locate sellers. I can see a buyer ending up being an AI network that taps into a GDS, rather than a website. This will make it easier to control rates for the vendors, cheaper on the purchasers, with a nice cushion in the middle to wiggle around in.

I can envision a robust GDS type system where vendors of all types will put their items to market to capture the "new AI market segment" that everyone is sure to be raving about in a few more years. The backbone of this technology is already there. It just needs about a decade to develop to a level like we see today with internet booking engines.

ETA: i should add, to buy jeans an AI doesn't need to know everything about jeans. It needs to know what variables to take to market, and then the market to be preset to identify those variables. For example, with jeans you would want to have a standard that you can set and change like inseam and waist. Then you would have other variables, like color, brand, fit, etc, etc. Once you can identify those variable, then you have a base to apply logic to As a failsafe, and even with a real life personal assistant, you would want to have purchase approval on what they source for you. It isn't as complicated as he is making it sound. At least, no more complicated than current systems.

Personal AI yes, teleportation is a bit of a leap.

I bet workplace efficiency would go up quite substantially, but predict government bureaucratic delays to remain the same

reply to post by TechUnique


We are, today, constantly living in what was science fiction just a handful of years ago. Anyone with a smartphone is using tech that, even a decade ago, was considered the realm of fantasy ( Google Oxygen and variable switching computing ). Somewhere, possibly even on ATS I wrote a thread about Oxygen some years ago, and people said that a combination phone/gps/mp3/streaming video/portable computer would never happen.

Well, now there's an app for that.

The thing about predictions of this nature is that they are often misguided because they can't predict the next big thing. I can recall, since I mentioned it already, the first time I was told about mp3 technology. In those days just playing an mp3 required several programs and downloading one was a full days worth of bandwidth ( 14.4 moden ). Nobody thought that mp3 would end up being so pervasive. And, yet, here we are. So what is to come will probably be the result of some teenagers trying to do things they haven't been told, yet, are impossible. Once they prove convention wrong and make it happen - then big business will swoop in, take over, and tech will move in another direction.

I say all this even as I hope that 3D printers become household items. Because I really want one!

~Heff