The article features Richard Socher, CEO of You.com, a company that has transitioned from being a search engine to an AI assistant capable of various tasks such as finding information, writing emails, and calculating mortgage payments. Socher believes that while human-level AI may not be ready, current AI assistants can provide real help in people's lives. However, he is still exploring the best uses for chatbots and the potential forms an AI assistant might take.
Key takeaways:
- The concept of a virtual assistant that understands human language has been a long-standing goal, dating back to the 1970s with the Genial Understander System (GUS) from Xerox PARC.
- Virtual assistants should ideally allow users to communicate with their devices as they would with another person, without needing to write code or follow specific click sequences.
- Richard Socher, CEO of You.com, believes that while we may not be ready for human-level AI, we are at a stage where virtual assistants can provide real assistance in our lives.
- You.com, initially a search engine, has evolved into an AI assistant that can perform tasks such as finding information online, writing emails, creating images, and calculating mortgage payments.