AI doesn’t really age well!

AI technology, while rapidly advancing, is also quickly becoming outdated – at least that how it feels to me, here’s why.

Recently, I was able to visit the Sphere in Las Vegas. And while I don’t want to go into too much detail about how great it is (the cinematic experience IS incredible) or if it’s worth the money (it’s horribly overpriced), something struck me while being there: as quickly as AI tech is developing, it is also aging – and not well! We don’t really notice it much with any of the constantly improved tools like #ChatGPT or #Gemini – but when you’re exposed to tech that isn’t or can’t be updated constantly, it becomes eerily obvious.

The matter at hand in my case were the “Aura” robots that are exclusively available at the Sphere. They have been introduced as “the world's most advanced humanoid robot” when the Sphere opened for the public almost exactly a year ago. And they may be still an impressive piece of technology. But when actually being exposed to them at the venue, I was pretty underwhelmed to be honest.

By using systems like Microsoft Copilot or Anthropic 's #Claude regularly, we have gotten used to machines (in most cases our computers or phones) understanding and talking back to us in natural language. That alone has somewhat dampened down the experience of interacting with an Aura robot at the Sphere – it didn’t feel “new” anymore. It now feels merely like nothing more than a nice trick that these robots answer questions addressed to them in natural language. But since that by it's own has lost it’s 'impact', one gets drawn to the still uncanny mechanical elements of limb movement and facial expressions of these things. Also their reaction times to questions from the audience seemed rather long – and due to the overall noise-levels, you had to either shout at them or talk into a microphone for the robots to understand you.

So instead of having a convincing interaction with “22nd century technology” (Sphere official website), some of the technology, at least in the atrium where the Aura robots are placed, already felt somewhat outdated, or present tech at best.

It may however also just be an example of me experiencing being on the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” as per Gartners Hype Cycle for AI... ??