Natural Language with AI

I’ve always been a fan of “talking to my house”.  Before Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, Bixby, etc, I was tinkering around with voice software (Vox Commando) and building out scripts and macros to execute my own automation control for fun.  As a Star Trek fan, I always wanted to be able to have that digital assistant talking back to me, being helpful, and executing commands.

Fast forward to 2017.  I now own multiple Google Home and Amazon Alexa Echos.  The microphone quality and recognition really impressed me, but also, their ability to “understand” was what locked me in.  You see, when I used to build out my own system *I* would need to create the question/answer responses that would trigger my commands.  And the verbage had to be exact!  Sure, there were ways to add more questions, that would execute the same response, but I’d have to constantly update it over time.  It did not adapt automatically, and felt unnatural to “remember” what I made for the trigger phrase.

That’s where machine learning comes in.  AI today is now getting to the point of understanding what you mean through the context of your current sentence, and even from that of a previous question/command.  Nobody does this better then Google right now.  Tie into the fact that Google already knows a lot about me, well…  it basically becomes my second brain.  I can ask, “Hey Google, watch Ghostbusters on Netflix on the Fireplace TV” - and it does just that!  Now let’s say it resumed playing from the middle of the movie,  but I want to start over.  Simply say, “play this from the beginning” and BAM, Google’s AI knew what I was referring to and restarts the exact movie, from the same service, on the same device.  Brilliant!

Today, I find out that Google Home can now understand 2 commands at once and it’s something I’ve been waiting for.  Since I also have many lights tied into my smart home ecosystem, I can now say, “Hey Google, turn on the living room TV, AND turn off the living room lights”.  It sounds silly, but being able to chain commands together makes things not only faster, but more natural.

It’s not perfect, but having a normal conversation with AI is becoming a reality quicker then we know it.  Now I just need a robot to physically execute my voice commands for me so I never have to go downstairs to grab a beer again.

Source:  https://www.cnet.com/how-to/you-can-now-string-two-google-home-commands-together/