🤫 The Art of Silence

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🥵 Good afternoon and Happy Thursday. If you have some summer travel planned, here are a few ways to save on energy via smart thermostats and voice assistants.

🤖 By the way, AI won’t take your job. Someone using AI will. Best time to level up? Yesterday. Here’s how.

Learn AI like it’s 2023

AI won’t take your job. Someone using AI will. Best time to level up? Yesterday. Second best? Right now.

Luckily, there’s Brilliant — the interactive app that makes it easy to master concepts in math, data, and computer science in just minutes a day.

Here’s how:

• They have thousands of lessons on tons of topics — from AI and neural networks to data science.

• They break down complex concepts into digestible building blocks that stick.

• Their interactive style keeps you engaged, so it’s easy to build a daily habit.

Join over 10 million people around the world and start building skills in minutes a day. You can try everything Brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days. Plus, right now you can get an exclusive 20% off an annual premium membership.

Smart Speakers Learn The Art of Silence

Back in your younger years, there was nothing more infuriating than a sibling or friend who wouldn’t stop repeating everything that you say. Apparently, this is a lesson that smart speakers still have yet to learn.

One of the most common complaints about smart speakers is that they simply talk too much. This is mainly because they have a habit of repeating every command that you say back to you.

For example, the command “Hey Google, turn off the lights” will almost always be followed by “Okay. Turning off the lights.” While it’s polite of the smart speaker to let you know that the lights are going off, you are already well aware of this fact because 1) you gave them the command and 2) In a second or two, the lights will be off.

This might sound like a small, nitpicky complaint. But, if you’re a heavy smart speaker user then the constant clarification comments can get on your nerves.

At this point, heavy users will be quick to point out that Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s HomePod are both capable of turning off clarification responses (Google’s Nest is still working on this). That said, all three smart speakers still haven’t quite mastered the art of silence yet.

Finding A Solution

Alexa and HomePod are capable of performing a task without clarifying what you said. But, that’s only when the command is performed successfully.

If the command can’t be performed for some reason then the assistant will come back with a laundry list of things that could be wrong, a lengthy “How-To” manual on how to fix the issue, and maybe even a brief dissertation on the history of the problem (or at least that’s what it feels like). Even though the assistant is just trying to be helpful, this overload of advice and response can be equally as frustrating.

Jennifer Touhy, a smart home writer for The Verge, has suggested that smart speakers implement a nice ding when the task is completed correctly or a buzz when it’s not. This will quickly alert you of whether or not the task was completed. While this may give off the feeling that you’re constantly living in a game show of some sort, it’s a viable solution.

Chasing Perfection

Since we tend to focus on their imperfections, it’s easy to lose sight of just how impressive voice-activated assistants have become. With just our voice, we can have a small robotic speaker answer our any question, control our house, or even bring us food.

At the same time, despite all their advancement, small quirks like clarifying every single command continue to remind us how far they still are from being human–That is, at least until a few more software upgrades come out.

Learn AI like it’s 2023

AI won’t take your job. Someone using AI will. Best time to level up? Yesterday. Second best? Right now.

Luckily, there’s Brilliant — the interactive app that makes it easy to master concepts in math, data, and computer science in just minutes a day.

Here’s how:

• They have thousands of lessons on tons of topics — from AI and neural networks to data science.

• They break down complex concepts into digestible building blocks that stick.

• Their interactive style keeps you engaged, so it’s easy to build a daily habit.

Join over 10 million people around the world and start building skills in minutes a day. You can try everything Brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days. Plus, right now you can get an exclusive 20% off an annual premium membership.