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Talk to Me

How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

**To chat with the author, ask your Alexa device to "open the voice computing book."**
The next great technological disruption is coming

The titans of Silicon Valley are racing to build the last, best computer that the world will ever need. They know that whoever successfully creates it will revolutionize our relationship with technology—and make billions of dollars in the process. They call it conversational AI.
 
Computers that can speak and think like humans may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but they are rapidly moving toward reality. In Talk to Me, veteran tech journalist James Vlahos meets the researchers at Amazon, Google, and Apple who are leading the way. He explores how voice tech will transform every sector of society: handing untold new powers to businesses, overturning traditional notions of privacy, upending how we access information, and fundamentally altering the way we understand human consciousness. And he even tries to understand the significance of the voice-computing revolution first-hand — by building a chatbot version of his terminally ill father.
 
Vlahos’s research leads him to one fundamental question: What happens when our computers become as articulate, compassionate, and creative as we are?

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 18, 2019
      Journalist Vlahos explores the increasingly ubiquitous presence of voice computing in his thought-provoking debut. He convincingly argues that the “latest technological disruption is happening, and it promises to be one of the most sizable and momentous that the world has ever seen.” Vlahos orients the reader with a discussion of the recent developments in voice computing, culminating in Apple’s creation of the Siri tool now integrated into every iPhone, before moving onto Amazon, Google, and Microsoft’s competitive efforts. Vlahos also briefly covers earlier voiced technology, such as Thomas Edison’s talking dolls of the 1870s and Eliza, a psychotherapist chatbot created in the 1960s. Evincing a talent for making the technical both easily understandable and intriguing, he explains how developers today are trying to further improve the user experience through machine learning, the process of “feeding vast amounts of data into computers so they can teach themselves how the world works.” Finally, Vlahos examines recent applications, including Mattel’s work encoding conversational abilities into its Hello Barbie doll, and potential privacy drawbacks. Readers will finish this timely book with a newfound appreciation for, and perhaps some apprehension toward, their favorite voice bot and the technological marvel it represents.

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  • English

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