Eva had always wanted a personal assistant who could help her manage her daily life. And when Alter arrived in 20281, did not miss the opportunity to have a personal artificial intelligence for anything in the world, even if the subscription price was a bit high for its possibilities.
After installing the AI on her personal device, Eva began the learning period. Alter started scanning all of her records, her phone calls, her phone conversations, her geographic location. Properly trained by Eva, she also learned about personal observations, working hours, culinary preferences and daily routines. Until, after about six days, he started suggesting a more balanced diet and arranging appointments for her, so that Eva could devote herself to what she liked best: painting.
The birth of "a friendship"
Far away since its inception in the early 20s, personal AI doesn't just interpret language and respond in kind. Indeed, it manifests: it also represents other soft skills in a very effective way. Show robust doses of empathy, irony, talkativeness. With the user's permission, she is also proactive, stepping in to suggest things and activities when she sees repeating patterns in the user's life. At times Alter gave great advice on what to wear. Other times, she went as far as giving Eva tips on how to respond to an intrusive admirer. A kind of "friend" who knows everything, a bit like in that old Spike Jonze movie, Her, who had anticipated things a bit in the early XNUMXs.
But it wasn't all rosy. Today, 4 years have passed since the beginning of this "relationship" between Eva and Alter, and there have also been situations where Eva has felt uncomfortable. For example, when she noticed that the AI had saved some of her private conversations, she felt her privacy was being violated. Or when she discovered that the AI had also recorded some tense moments during her calls with her ex-partner, which made her feel very vulnerable.
It's not the only personal AI causing headaches
A few years ago it was expected that ever more advanced artificial intelligences would constitute the "perfect" assistant, capable of understanding everything and solving all sorts of problems. In reality, the evolution of artificial intelligence has also shown traits of what, if we didn't know they were machines, we would define "personality". The more Alter's presence enters aspects considered "personal" and intimate in a user's life, the more friction there is.
Not everyone is enthusiastic about it. Sarah, for example. One of Eva's friends, who had had many difficulties with her personal AI and, due to real misunderstandings, had decided to leave it and unsubscribe from Alter. A decision that had disastrous consequences for her career. Sara was a successful businesswoman and needed a reliable personal assistant to manage her business. When she decided to quit AI, she found that without her Alter she could no longer keep up with work, and she started losing clients.
She's not the only one expressing concerns. After the past decade full of hype about this technology, the company in the 30s began to reflect on the risks associated with using a personal artificial intelligence and questioned whether it had made the right choice to rely completely on this technology. Many worry that their AI personal assistant could somehow evolve and take control of their life.
What will the next few years be like?
It's not easy to say: the evolution of these systems is proceeding quickly, and many are wondering if future integration with robotics will give us back real "physical subjects" with their own personalities. How will we interact with them? Who tells us that they will always be ready to listen to us or help us?
Despite everything, Eva continued to use Alter, but she decided to keep a close eye on her movements and not to become too addicted. Sure, her personal AI has had a significant impact on her life, helping her better manage her daily activities and focus on her passions. However, you also raised some concerns about privacy and reliance on this technology.
As a society, we will need to balance the benefits and risks of using this technology. Years ago, we feared that these artificial intelligences could replace us. Now perhaps we have the opposite problem: we're too happy to have been replaced, and we try to figure out if there's still something we feel like doing on our own, without their help.
1 - Name of a hypothetical personal AI service. "Alter", from the Latin, means "other, different", to underline the differences between a human being and a machine, beyond all the apparent similarities.
