From a solid base of experience, Dengel charts the way forward for the next technological shift.
An introduction to an emerging new paradigm of voice interaction with machines.
Giving commands to tech devices by voice has been around for years, but the thesis of this book is that the technology is ready to take a leap to the transformative level. Dengel, the president of WillowTree, a digital product design and development company, gathers numerous case studies from companies that have already begun to make the transition. The underpinning AI technology has undergone countless improvements, to the point that sophisticated, multitier interactions between users and devices are becoming possible. “The overarching driver,” writes the author, “is the fact that we speak three times faster than we type….The beauty and power of voice is that it is the easiest, most natural, and most convenient way for us to communicate with our devices.” The potential applications range from repetitive tasks like completing forms to complex work like software programming as well as creative activities. The real value, however, is likely to come from improved customer service and interaction at the personal level. Siri and Alexa have introduced millions of people to voice interfaces, but those systems have limitations in learning and recognition. Dengel sees them as representatives of the first generation of voice interaction, and the technology is moving beyond them. He emphasizes that people do not want tech to emulate humans; rather, they want interfaces that are reliable, clear, and flexible. For companies, integrating voice technology will require investments, but the productivity gains are worth it, especially if a custom-designed system is used. Although there are still issues such as use in noisy environments, it is clear that voice interaction is going to spread and develop. The author does a good job of explaining where it is going.
From a solid base of experience, Dengel charts the way forward for the next technological shift.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781541702363
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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