The Reality Gap: Why AI Assistants and Smart Home Technology Still Struggle to Deliver
By
David Pierce
A weekday bagel. Dependable, satisfying, no fuss.
Summary
The article critiques the current state of AI technology, particularly large language models and virtual assistants like Gemini, Siri, and Alexa. The author expresses frustration that despite the hype and endless potential use cases for generative AI, much of the technology doesn't work well in practice. The piece draws from personal experience trying to get smart home devices to function properly, highlighting the gap between AI promises and real-world performance.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledLarge language models are currently everyone's solution to everything.
The use cases for generative AI seem both huge and endless.
But then you use the stuff, and not enough of it works very well.
Gemini, Siri, and Alexa are all making big bets on AI for virtual assistants, and so far it's not working very well.
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