When ChatGPT goes Voice-Enabled: The Future of Human-Technology Interaction

The arrival of AI Language Models such as ChatGPT into the public domain is a gigantic step towards that future, where we no longer interface with technology, but rather interact with it. It is a gigantic step towards that future, where we no longer use our fingers to search a computing device, a folder, a platform, or the entire internet for information, but rather, we talk to technology, to give us instantly analyzed intelligent inputs, derived from the entire sum body of the knowledge that cumulatively exists in our world.

No, I am not just simply talking about a new alternative or an upgrade to smart assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant. Yes, those things will evolve, to provide us a whole new level of end-user benefits, when their existing technology converges with the newer, more recently emerging AI technologies behind the AI Language Models such as ChatGPT and Bard. That is not the part to get excited about at all. That is not a future-defining outcome.

Business

The exciting part, and the future defining outcome is where:

1. Anytime, any place, for any purpose, you need to call any company on earth, for anything that remotely amounts to "Customer Service", you will get great patience on the other end of the line, absolutely perfect attention, you will get the best options for solutions, paramount guidance, no time wastage with immediate response without waiting or holding the line, and no attitude or temperamental issues from a person (big customer service liabilities for companies right there) on the other end of the line - it won't be a person on the other end of the line, but rather, a human-sounding AI Language Model that can listen to you and intelligently interpret your voice through speech recognition, before intelligently responding to you
2. Managers, Consultants, Advisors, Researchers and people across a spectrum of Professions or Job Functions will not need a team of Analysts, to have to manage (people management with all the issues that brings on a day-to-day basis to impede effectiveness and efficiency), to have to rely upon with possibly varied inputs or varied quality of inputs, and to have to wait for to get necessary information sourced, organized, processed, filtered, verified, analyzed, organized again, then presented in a manner that is comprehensible. Talking to the internet, will suffice for anyone, to never need a single analyst, ever again, to get what one needs to generate ideas, calibrate information, concretize solutions, produce intellectual products in general and come to decisions.
3. Small Business Owners and Independent Consultants (like me! like me! like me!) will get an even playing field in ability to produce quantity or scale of output, or match timelines for work, against traditionally much larger firms - let's face it, the Smaller Enterprises and Independent Consultants have long lost out on their ability to afford headcount budgets, to get hands onboard to do the nitty gritty, tedious, painstaking legwork, that comes before they could begin working on the actual intellectual product for which they get engaged, and the ability to meet time has been the greatest impediment to securing projects.

HRM, Jobs and Work

The manpower cost is going to drop for a lot of companies. And for some companies, it will be the outsourcing cost. Period. That is a very important thing in a world where inflation is becoming too routine, and too much of a problem. At the same time, the capabilities of some of those with much smaller purses will exponentially balloon, to match those of the far wealthier.

And no, technology, AI Language Models included, is not coming for the jobs. If what someone does today, is something that fits into a box or mold or a pattern, they are setting themselves up for eventual redundancy. This has happened throughout human history, and so, with voice-enabled AI Language Models, nothing will change in that regard. I explained this in detail in my 2014 article Why Artificial Intelligence will not replace a Human Futurist (click on the link, to read it).

People who fear Artificial Intelligence or AI, for the sake of their jobs, are either one or both of the following:

1. They don't understand what AI is, how it works and what its limitations always will be (and refuse to understand too)
2. They are getting by in life refusing to be Knowledge Workers or Wisdom Workers, not wanting to ever get there

Also Read: The 2018 Update on The Future of Everything

Education

Every child is different and unique. So too are the needs, including for learning. When a child goes to kindergarten or the school, no matter how good the team of teachers there, what can those teachers do, where they always outnumbered by the children, all of them unique? There will always be limitations, until tech mediation changes things, and that is precisely what voice-enabled AI Language Models will do.

Teachers will always remain human. You cannot replace a teacher with technology, just precisely for the same reasons why you cannot replace a Futurist with technology, though I am fully confident that in many parts of the world, many attempts will be made to do just that for a long-time to come after 2023, even after hard lessons are dealt. However, teaching will become very different a work process.

The Teacher's job will be about managing technology that is voice-enabled with integrated AI Language Models, to engage each child or student, individually, in a customized and personalized manner, to meet his or her own unique requirements, based on his or her thinking styles, preferences, strengths and weaknesses. The end result? A much smarter human species, that will perhaps finally stop killing the environment that supports our existence, if nothing else works. And the benefits of this evolution in customized learning experiences will not be limited to just kindergarten or school, but will extend to all levels of tertiary education. Exciting times for educators who are not nearing their retirements any time this decade I am sure.

Also Read: How Hotels Can Save The Planet: A Futurist's Take

Our Lives as Consumers (Marketers will love or hate this Part)

You won't be searching for products or shops anymore. If you need something, you will talk to the internet. You will have intelligent conversation, in real time, on the spot, with the entire World Wide Web. What it is that is best for you, within your budget, that will give you most value for your money, and easiest for you to acquire, with minimal effort and time, the internet will instantly guide you.

This has massive implications for concepts and notions of customer and brand loyalty. Also, plenty of eCommerce Companies or Shopping Platform companies are not at all going to be amused. As it is, with AI Language Models being integrated into search engines, effectively as I write this, any textbook on SEO that exists, is absolutely worth a place in the recycling bin (without room for any debate). The rules are not changing. They have been replaced. And that is before AI Language Models have become voice-enabled. And that next step, really isn't that far away - for this really is a near-to-mind-term future.

Also Read: Microsoft Mesh = X Reality Arrives

Also Read: The Internet of Robotic Things: The Biggest Revolution in Goods Production Yet

Ending Remarks

If you really want a bigger picture about what the world looks like where you can have intelligent conversations with technology, have a look at my free eBook, Life in Techtopia

Harish Shah?is Singapore's first local born Professional?Futurist?and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs?Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting and?Keynote?Topics include EmTech, Industry 4.0, HR, Digital Transformation, Product Development, X Reality,?Marketing,?Strategic Foresight,?Systems Thinking?and?Organisational Future Proofing. In an?Open Letter?in 2019, Harish has called on his fellow Futurists around the world to raise the emphasize upon the need for Environmental Salvation, in the course of their work.

In 2022, Harish released his first Futurist eBook titled:?Life in Techtopia?(available for free reading, download or request in PDF format)