"Over time, the computer itself - whatever its form factor -
will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day," Sundar
Pichai says.
Forget personal computer doldrums and waning smartphone
demand. Google thinks computers will one day cease being physical
devices.
"Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very
concept of the 'device' to fade away," Google Chief Executive
Officer Sundar Pichai wrote Thursday in a letter to shareholders of
parent Alphabet."Over time, the computer itself - whatever its form factor - will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day."
Instead of online information and activity happening mostly
on the rectangular touch screens of smartphones, Pichai sees artificial
intelligence powering increasingly formless computers.
"We will move from mobile first to an AI [Artificial Intelligence] first world," he said.
Pichai was, in part, talking his own playbook because Google
has been working on AI and related technology such as machine learning
for years, and this advanced software already powers web services and
apps such as Google Photos and Google Translate.
Google is also a major investor in Magic Leap, a startup
that has raised more than US$1 billion (NZ$1.43b) to build an
augmented-reality system that inserts 3D moving images and other
information into the surroundings people see. Pichai is on the board.
Magic Leap has been coy about the physical form its technology will take.
When asked last year whether it will be a head-worn device
near the eyes, Rony Abovitz, the company's CEO, said he saw computing as
being a kind of presence all around humans in the future.
Pichai has risen to the top role at Google in recent years,
taking over from co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, so his views
shape the strategic direction of the internet search giant.
Indeed, he expounded on the future of computing in a Google
founders' letter that has been only written by either Page or Brin for
over a decade.
Still, Google has a history of grand pronouncements about the future of computing that don't pan out, at least initially.
In 2013, Brin touted the benefits of Google Glass, the
company's connected eye wear, saying that summoning information to one's
eyes was a better use of the body than "rubbing a featureless piece of
glass."
Glass flopped because of privacy concerns and technical problems like short battery life.
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