If there's one word that's inevitable in 2024… well, it's probably “Israel” or “election” or “Musk.” But if there's one thing that's unique to the technology industry, it's AI. Fortunes are being made on this interest, in a way reminiscent of the crypto boom and subsequent bust. And absolutely everyone wants to enter the former and avoid the latter.

“Everyone” in this case includes every possible technology company. While OpenAI is at the heart of this particular gold rush, and Nvidia is selling shovels. Compared to digital forty-eight, more traditional players aren't resting on their laurels. As with buzzwords, it's wearing thin fast. Every new PC is an “AI PC”. Which means very little to actual users.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

But when it comes to generating tools that “AI” refers to, there seem to be two general approaches. Every company is either hitching their wagon to the star of ChatGPT, as Microsoft is doing it with its Copilot system.or hoping to be the next to shine as bright as Google with it. Bard Gemini system Or Apple with its upcoming creative AI.

The most famous technology club is 'AI'

Unlike the crypto boom, generative AI is something anyone can use, even if they don't understand it. You can punch in a request for it, say, A lime about the new Fallout TV show With just a few keystrokes. It wouldn't be particularly nice, but anyone can see why you'd prefer a computer to think for itself in a few seconds rather than trying to draw lines in your slow human brain for 10 or 20 minutes. The appeal is undeniable and universal.

Mark Hechman / IDG

Mark Hechman / IDG

Mark Hechman / IDG

Perhaps that's why these companies are so eager to put AI front and center in their interfaces, both physical and digital. Microsoft is making All new Windows laptops come with a dedicated Copilot key.literally forces users to interact even more instantly with its ChatGPT interface. Pinning it to the taskbar. Google is replacing Assistant, one of Android's longest-running and most distinctive features, with Gemini. to mixed results.

There is a growing niche of products that are AI all the time, such as the Humane Ai pin An absolute hit In his early reviews. We will see if AI powered baby crying translator It could do better when it starts, to say nothing of it AI powered Samsung refrigerator.

AI buttons are everywhere.

Even Logitech, an accessories vendor that doesn't seem to have much to gain from this particular trend, is jumping in. New to the company Signature AI Edition M750 Mouse ChatGPT comes with a dedicated button to invoke another flavor, focused on helping you write with short creative tasks.

It's basically the same idea as Copilot's simplest functions, now built into Logi Options+. This means that most Logitech mice and keyboards will come with this capability, assuming you bother to install a management app for them. This dedicated AI button is expected to be used in other Logitech products, e.g The next revision of the MX Master Mouse. Hell, the button might be the only justification Logitech needs to release a new MX Master mouse in the first place.

Logitech

Logitech

Logitech

This seems like uncharted territory, but we've been here before, and I'm not even talking about the most recent memories of it. Matt Damon is scolding you for not buying Bitcoins. In a Super Bowl commercial. Nor am I referring to the short time when Microsoft really wanted Windows buttons on mice.. No, we've seen a new idea take hold and spread seemingly overnight to every aspect of digital life. If you just felt the chills, it could be the ghost of Cortana on your shoulder.

I have heard this song before.

Once Google found success with Assistant and Apple gained cultural capital with Siri, every company wanted its own voice chatbot. Amazon had Alexa, Microsoft had Cortana, even Samsung had the surprisingly named “Bixby.” And these chatbots were promoted accordingly, taking center stage in both digital and physical interfaces.

Samsung gave Bixby its own dedicated button on hundreds of millions of Android phones. (And speaking as someone who worked for an Android website back then, I'd like to thank them for all the money we made on search.How to replace the Bixby buttonApple kept Siri on the iPhone's home button, and Microsoft ditched Cortana on the Windows 10 taskbar.

Sound familiar? “She” was also on Windows' first boot interface, speaking right to the user in a voice performance with shades of Clappy. Some manufacturers even went so far as to put Microsoft on hold A dedicated Cortana button on laptop keyboardsor activating Assistant with specific trackpad gestures.

Siri is still around, though it's something of a punch line. The assistant is turning into a Gemini, and not without complaint. Alexa lives on, though Amazon still doesn't know how Actually make it profitable. And Bixby has apparently been resurrected, deep within Samsung's software development team…Becoming an AI-powered assistant. Huh

Cortana, as you've probably heard, is Dead like its fictional namesake. A huge chunk of Microsoft's time and money, and no small amount of user frustration, was blown on something that's remembered more as a joke than an actual product. And the most memorable thing about Cortana is that Microsoft tried to shove it in our faces for so long.

Michael Crider/The Foundry

Michael Crider/The Foundry

Michael Crider/The Foundry

As a professional writer, I tend to dismiss creative text tools like Copilot and ChatGPT. They are very real and visual. Arr taking gerbs., and reading the creative text feels like someone tried to write a TPS report using a crayon. But I can see why everyone else finds them useful, if only for the fact that they can save a ton of time on relatively simple tasks. And cheat on your homework… not that I'm judging.

But trying to make AI tools ubiquitous in our interfaces, on screens and dedicated buttons, is the fastest way to frustrate users. Nobody wanted a Windows button on a mouse, nobody wanted to talk to Cortana to log into their Wi-Fi network, and nobody wanted to ask ChatGPT to take a picture with their smart glasses. was

Logitech

Logitech

Logitech

Creative text can be an exciting new tool for both businesses and consumers. Or it could be a flash-in-the-pan fad, doomed to fail. Fill the web with garbage text. That Google has to find a way to ignore. But whatever the future holds, there's no faster way to make consumers sick of it than to try to force it on them. Listen to Cortana's ghost, and heed her warning not to repeat the mistakes of the past.