Hello, folks! What's up? I have a question for you: Have you ever thought of why there are virtual assistants? Then that's what we're doing today. Surprise!
If you don't even know what a virtual assistant is, then here we go: A virtual assistant is an AI sort of chatbot, and if you don't know what that is, then you may know it by its name. Ever heard of Siri, Bixby, Alexa, Cortana or Google Assistant? These are the most known assistants in the world. Each one comes from a company, like Siri from Apple, Bixby from Samsung, Alexa from Amazon, Cortana from Microsoft, and Assistant from Google. There are also a lot more virtual assistants that can do more or help you, like ChatGPT or Google Bard. But those two are called AI chatbots and can do a lot more than virtual assistants. Consider trying these out!
1. Why Were Virtual Assistants Created?
Virtual assistants were created to make our virtual and digital lives easier. For example: You are cooking right now, and trying out a new recipe. But in the middle, you suddenly feel like you can't remember how much wheat and flour to put in! Oh no! And your hands are dirty and the food is on the stove. You can't leave the kitchen like that to go and check the recipe on your phone! But then you remembered something: "Hey Siri, what is the next ingredient?" and magically, Siri answered: "The next ingredients are wheat and flour. Put 300 grams of wheat and 250 grams of flour,". Now you remember!
So now you know: virtual assistants are made to help us in sticky situations, like when we are driving, cooking, or whatever. They are also there to help us when we are too tired. For example: It's 7 a.m., but you don't know that, and you're too tired to even roll over on your bed, get up, and take your phone and see what time it is. So you just say: "Hi Bixby, what time is it?", and again, like magic, Bixby (or your phone, actually) answers: "It's 7 a.m.".
So that's why virtual assistants exist.
2. How Virtual Assistants Spread And Get Better
Another reason why virtual assistants are spreading now is because they also learn from you. They get better and start making better suggestions for you. For example: You've been using Amazon Alexa for about a year now. When you first got her, she didn't really understand what you meant with things at all. But a few months later, she started getting better and started learning from you. If you usually use slang language, they won't really understand you at first. But when you keep repeating what you mean a lot every day, and start using your virtual assistant to do that thing, then it will learn and understand.
3. The Dis/Advantages of Virtual Assistants
Just like everything has disadvantages, virtual assistants have disadvantages too. Virtual assistants are usually right when you ask them about things. But sometimes they can tell you misinformation just because of their knowledge. It also happened to me once when I was just playing around with ChatGPT. At some point I got bored and I just started asking easy questions like 20+20 and stuff. While this rarely happens that doesn't mean that it never happens. So just one tip for you: Do not fully rely on virtual assistants or chatbots. Before just copying and pasting stuff from Google Bard to your lecture presentation, read the things the chatbot says carefully.
Conclusion
While virtual assistants surely and without a doubt make our lives easier, that doesn't mean we shouldn't work and check what they tell us. Maybe you are smarter than them! 😉
Author: Yahia Ayman
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