Well, that future is coming sooner than we think because come 2018 there will be more devices embedded with digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence (AI) from either Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant. There is no need to use a phone or other devices with this kitchen machine on your counter, all you need is the sound of your voice to control virtually everything in your home.
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According to Qualcomm, this more powerful version of its platform (SDA624) can drive a Full HD+ display, capture 4K video and support Tensor Flow for on-device machine learning.
Sony is also working on a smart display with Google Assistant integration, but we’ve yet to see that model in the flesh.
A handful of PC makers, including HP, Acer and Asus, are integrating Amazon’s Alexa into some of their upcoming Windows 10 PCs, a move that may help extend Alexa’s reach into the business application market, a move that is separate from the Cortana-Alexa alliance Microsoft and Amazon struck in August 2017.
“With Google Assistant built into it, it’s just so much easier so much smarter to do the things that you’re doing now without all the effort”, explained Martin Valdez of LG Electronics.
You won’t find a section dedicated to the Assistant apps in the Google Home app anymore. Rather than opening your calendar, weather, traffic, and reminders, you can start your day by saying “hey Google” and it will walk you through your morning schedule, displaying calendar events, to-do items, traffic information for your commute, a rundown of the latest news and anything else you might want to know. Alexa continued to have an edge over Assistant and other assistants this year at CES, and Google’s show-held in a tent outdoors-got ruined by unexpected rain in Las Vegas. Getting shut out of voice devices could imperil Google’s lucrative digital-advertising business, the source of its financial strength.
But Apple & Google are embedding their tech into their own home-based smart assistants (Apple’s release of its speaker-come-hub HomePod is slated for “early 2018”). This will likely be put to the test now that the companies will try drive the cost of devices back to the intended selling price, thus ensuring a profit from the sales of the goods. The company still sounds bullish about the smart assistant.
According to people with familiar with Google’s plan, the company is concerned about losing market share to Amazon.
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GOOGL stock hit all-time highs this month, but to keep the momentum, the company needs to overcome the Alexa problem.
