Leveraging the Power of Artificial Intelligence Utilizing Your Smartwatch for Voice Activated Assistance and Smart Home Control

Would you let ChatGPT control your smart home?

Today, you can ask Alexa to turn on the lights or have Siri tell you the temperature in your bedroom, and sometimes theyll get it right. Or you may hear, You have 15 devices named lights; which one would you like to control? or The current temperature in Kathmandu is 53 degrees. But what if your voice assistant was not only always accurate but could also respond to nebulous comments like Ive had a rough day; whats a good way to unwind? with intelligent responses? For example, by lowering the shades, dimming the lights, adjusting the thermostat, and queuing up some goodies on Netflix?

Thats the potential of voice assistants powered by new AI language models, according to Alex Capecelatro, co-founder of the Josh.ai home automation system. Josh.ai has already started working on a prototype integration using OpenAIs ChatGPT. This proof-of-concept video shows Capecelatro asking the Josh assistant to open the shades, turn off the music, and tell him the weather (controlling three things at once is a capability Josh already has). He then goes on to use more natural voice commands for the smart home, like Im filming a video; its kind of dark in here, to which the voice assistant responds slightly clumsily by turning up the lights in the room.

The possibility of improving smart home control by using AI language models to parse natural language is tantalizing. Capecelatro thinks its the future. Were trying to figure out how good we can get it in controlling your environment in a more natural and intuitive way, he says.

Today, voice assistants usually require precise language and often confuse basic smart home commands with requests for information, which results in frustrating and sometimes useless responses. This was the problem Josh.ai set out to solve when Capecelatro and Tim Gill (founder of Quark) started the company in 2015. Its eponymous voice assistant aims to be excellent at controlling your connected gadgets, no matter how you phrase the request.

If we dont adopt ChatGPT-type technology, businesses like mine wont exist in a year. It is critical to the future of anyone doing voice control in the home.

Using extensive knowledge graph models, Josh can parse when it hears satellites instead of turn on the lights and do the appropriate thing. Open the drapes may sound like Get some grapes, but Josh is smart enough to know you dont live in a vineyard. We spend a lot of time working under the hood to fix mishearing, work with different accents, understand imperfect sentences and the like, so even when you say turn on the goddam lights, we know what you mean, says Capecelatro.

Currently, Josh is only available as a voice control layer in custom smart home installations powered by the likes of Crestron, Control4, or Joshs own standalone smart home control system. In that more protected environment, where the system is set up and largely controlled by a professional installer and using Josh.ais proprietary hardware, Josh has built a reputation for being a more reliable, more private voice assistant albeit with a higher cost of entry. (While there is a cloud component to Josh, most requests are processed locally on the Josh Core or the Josh Micro, and identifiable information is stripped out when using cloud-based APIs, says Capecelatro.)

The company, which recently announced a partnership with Amazon, is now betting big on the new generation of large language models (LLMs) used by ChatGPT and other chatbots. Capecelatro believes that these systems will transform todays voice assistants into something much more useful. A year from now, no ones going to be willing to tolerate the old way that Alexa, Google, Siri, and even Josh, operated. Its just not going to be enough, says Capecelatro. If we dont adopt ChatGPT-type technology, businesses like mine wont exist in a year. It is critical to the future of anyone doing voice control in the home.

For Josh.ai, which doesnt have the depth of general knowledge that its competitors do, the knowledge base a ChatGPT integration adds to the voice assistant is a huge leap forward. Weve always wanted to make Josh as smart as possible, but were a small team, says Capecelatro.

But for the smart home in general, the promise lies in combining the conversational abilities of AI language models with the context a home automation system can provide. For example, by knowing what smart devices you have in your home and details about how you use them, Josh could parse natural language commands into actions in your home. Say, Hey Josh, its almost time for the kids to get home, and its getting dark. Can you make sure everythings ready? and the voice assistant could switch on the porch lights, start preheating the oven, lower the shades, and turn the lights on in the kitchen, for example.

Josh has also worked to use ChatGPT for media discovery in the smart home. Something that has been a missing link to date. Voice control is not ideal if you dont know what you want, Capecelatro says. We built out an integration with the Ava remote that you can use to browse the content you want to watch. By adding ChatGPT into the mix, you can say, What are some really good shows on Netflix that are maybe romcoms and feature (this) actor. ChatGPT can compile a list and present it to you on the screen of the remote. Thats family movie night sorted, then.

Joshs AI upgrade isnt live yet, and Capecelatro says the company is keeping a close watch on other companies burgeoning tech in this space in case they can offer a better model.Besides ChatGPT currently being very slow (the video was edited to speed it up), there is the very real issue of AI generating, well, bullshit. (And the fact that the dataset that ChatGPT was trained on ends in mid-2021. Its worth noting that in the demo video when Josh is asked, What are some shows to watch on Netflix, the newest show it listed debuted in 2019.) But Capecelatro says some form of generative AI voice assistant is coming to the smart home.

Caution is definitely warranted. No company wants a racist, homophobic, homicidal voice assistant spewing its opinions into peoples homes through their hardware, a distinct possibility given examples of generative AI essentially regurgitating content with no filter. Were being extremely cautious. We could have gone live with the ChatGPT integration immediately, says Capecelatro. Were not doing that. Because we dont want to give people really bad data. We dont want to lie.

Its not a leap to assume that Google, Apple, and Amazon are all looking at how to incorporate new AI language models into their voice assistants

The company plans to take its time to figure out how to put the right guard rails in place, which will be essential for this technology to translate into the smart home. I think Microsoft and Google jumped the gun a bit [with their search ChatBot models], and theyre now seeing the consequences, says Capecelatro of recent high-profile launches that went sideways quickly.

Its not a leap to assume that Google, Apple, and Amazon are all looking at how to incorporate new AI language models into their voice assistants (heck, maybe Microsoft will bring back Cortana), and smart home enthusiasts have already figured out ways to use Siri Shortcuts to get ChatGPT into their smart home. Its a lot easier to talk to a smart speaker than type into a web browser.

But do we really want this type of artificial intelligence in our homes? Is our desire for a voice assistant that just works so great wed be happy with one that might also try and teach my eight-year-old about quantum physics? Personally, I think a reliable, voice-controlled smart home system that knows what I mean when I say Turn off the goddam lights, is the Holy Grail here, not an omniscient intelligence running my home.

While the promise of an inherently competent, eminently intuitive voice assistant a flawless butler for your home is very appealing, I fear the reality could be more Space Odyssey than Downton Abbey. But lets see if Im proven wrong.

Updated, Monday February 27, 10:25AM: Added clarifying points about how the Josh.ai. system works.

20 Popular AI Assistants

An AI assistant is a software program that uses artificial intelligence to provide information and perform specific tasks. By leveraging natural language processing and large language models, it can understand users text or speech inputs and generate responses that are conversational and fluent.

What is an AI Assistant?

An AI assistant, also called a virtual assistant or digital assistant, refers to software that uses artificial intelligence to understand a users commands and complete tasks for them.

Also referred to as virtual assistants, AI assistants bridge the gap between humans and the technology they use, simplifying users routines and enhancing their productivity. And with the growth of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, they are only growing in sophistication making them increasingly useful across a variety of jobs, from scheduling meetings to managing personal finances.

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Top AI Personal Assistants

Siri

Launched by Apple in 2011, Siri is widely considered to be the very first AI personal assistant to hit the market. At this point, all Apple products are equipped with it, including iPhones, iPads, AirPods and MacBooks. Siri relies on voice recognition to respond to questions, make recommendations, send text messages and more. It is also highly personalizable, adapting to a users language, searches and preferences over time.

Siri Key Features:

• Voice-based, activated by the command Hey, Siri.
• Performs various tasks, including identifying songs, adding events to calendars and providing driving directions.
• Available for free, and is often preloaded on Apple devices.

Google Assistant

An AI app designed to engage in both text and voice two-way conversations, Google Assistant performs a variety of tasks including answering questions, scheduling alarms and controlling smart home devices. According to a report from Axios, Google plans to revamp the AI personal assistant with more generative AI capabilities, similar to those that power its Gemini chatbot. The company is also working on a new AI personal assistant to perform more personal tasks, such as giving life advice, planning and tutoring.

Google Assistant Key Features:

• Compatible with thousands of smart home devices across about 1,000 brands.
• Users can initiate tasks with both text and voice commands.
• Available for free, and is often preloaded on Android smartphones.

Alexa

Since its launch in 2014, Amazons Alexa has become a household name. The voice-activated AI personal assistant comes preloaded on many Amazon smart devices, and allows users to create to-do lists, play music, order products off of Amazon and much more all a user has to do is call out the wake-up word, Alexa. Amazon is also working on a generative AI reboot of its AI personal assistant, with the goal of making it more conversational and less transactional in nature.

Alexa Key Features:

• Works with compatible smart home devices to control things like thermostats, televisions and even cars.
• Used mainly through Amazons line of hands-free speakers called Amazon Echo.
• Available for free, and is often preloaded on Amazon products.

Bixby

Bixby is Samsungs AI personal assistant that runs on all its smartphones and some of its other smart devices, including refrigerators. Bixby is voice-based and can be used for various tasks including texting, retrieving location-specific weather reports and reading news articles. It also learns, evolves and adapts to users behaviors and preferences over time.

Bixby Key Features:

• Works with all Samsung smartphones and some Samsung branded appliances, including refrigerators.
• Voice-based, activated by the command Hi, Bixby.
• Available for free, and is often preloaded on Samsung products.

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Top AI Writing Assistants

Jasper

Used by content creators, marketers and social media teams alike, Jasper is among the most popular AI writing assistants available. It offers a suite of tools to help writers write, optimize and rank their content, and offers a wide range of writing templates for everything from one-off social media posts to long-form blogs all while tracking voice and tone so that it can learn a specific user or companys brand over time

Jasper Key Features:

• Offers more than 50 writing templates, from one-off social media posts to long-form blogs.
• Learns brand voice and tone over time.
• Plans start at $39/mo and all plans offer unlimited word generation.

Rytr

Besides automatically generating content and offering standard grammar-checking, Rytr can rewrite existing content, check content for plagiarism and create multiple versions of a piece depending on the intended tone. The platform can customize content for more than 20 different writing tones, ranging from enthusiastic to inspirational. It can also translate text into more than 30 different languages.

Rytr Key Features:

• Can customize a pieces tone, with more than 20 different options.
• Stores and organizes all a users content in one place.
• Offers a free plan, with an option to upgrade.

Hoppy Copy

Hoppy Copy is an AI writing assistant designed specifically to help salespeople and marketers create better email campaigns and newsletters. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools to help in every step of the process, from drafting to editing to monitoring its success. Among its editing tools is Spam Check, which automatically flags spam keywords that could land their emails in peoples junk folders, and substitutes them with stronger copy. Hoppy Copy also allows users to track their competitors campaigns, including the discounts and promotions theyre offering as well as the timing and frequency of their emails, to learn from and replicate their successes.

Hoppy Copy Key Features:

• Allows users to track competitors email campaigns to learn from and replicate their success.
• Provides editing assistance, including a tool that flags and replaces spam keywords.
• Plans start at $29/mo.

WriteSonic

WriteSonic automatically generates SEO-friendly marketing copy for everything from long-form articles to social media ads to website landing pages all of which is guaranteed to be plagiarism-free by the company. It also offers an AI art generator called Photosonic, a customer support bot called Botsonic and a GPT-4-powered AI chatbot assistant called ChatSonic.

WriteSonic Key Features:

• Guarantees its generated content is plagiarism-free.
• Offers an AI chatbot assistant powered by GPT-4, one of the biggest language models available today.
• Offers a free plan, with an option to upgrade.

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Top AI Work Assistants

Fireflies

Fireflies is an AI meeting assistant that allows users to easily record, transcribe and search through recorded live meetings or audio files, eliminating the need for note-taking. It also summarizes relevant information about the meeting, consolidating insights around speakers, topics and sentiment. And multiple users can access one transcript at a time, allowing them to add comments or flag specific parts of the recording.

Fireflies Key Features:

• Record and transcribe meetings instantly.
• Consolidates information about speakers, key topics discussed and overall sentiment.
• Offers a free plan, with an option to upgrade.

Motion

With artificial intelligence, Motion provides both scheduling and project management assistance. It can automatically build and optimize a persons daily schedule based on their calendars, to-do lists, and activities, and then prioritize and reschedule work based on deadlines. It even automatically generates a plan to ensure everyone finishes projects on time. The goal is to help users utilize their days more efficiently and effectively.

Motion Key Features:

• Manages and tasks and organizes them on a calendar according to their deadline.
• Automatically creates plans to help users finish their projects on time.
• Offers a free plan, with an option to upgrade.

Clara

Designed to operate like an actual human assistant, Clara manages all of a persons scheduling needs. Once a user has CCd Clara on an email, it can take care of the rest, handling everything from follow-up emails to calendar organization. And all of the text it generates is natural and fluent. While much of this is thanks to AI, the company also has a team of human experts that can evaluate a message or scheduling conflict if the bot is having a particularly hard time understanding it.

Clara Key Features:

• Uses natural language in its generated emails.
• Ensures meeting reschedules and cancellations are updated in users calendars in real-time.
• Plans start at $99/mo.

Otter.ai

With Otter.ai, users can record anything from a video conference to a phone call, and transcribe those recordings automatically. It then breaks down those transcriptions based on the speaker and generates an outline of the conversation with corresponding time stamps, highlighting key points and themes. Otter.ai can be integrated with other platforms like Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, as well as Dropbox and Slack.

Otter.ai Key Features:

• Generates a time-stamped outline of a conversion, highlighting key points and themes.
• Can be integrated with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox and Slack.
• Offers a free plan, with an option to upgrade.

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Top AI Travel Assistants

Ava

Developed by Navan, an all-in-one travel tech platform, Concierge by Ava addresses the challenge of personalization in travel bookings. With its multi-tasking, generative AI capabilities, Ava learns travelers patterns and preferences to streamline booking processes. Integrated directly into the web application, Ava goes beyond traditional AI tools by automating search fields in the Navan app, which reduces the time and effort required to book business travel.

Ava Key Features:

• Learns travel patterns and preferences.
• Combines travel preferences with public information (like the distance from the hotel to the travelers destination).
• Provides hotel ranking according to user preferences.
• Automated search.

Abhi

Created by travel tech company Mondee, Abhi combines technology like generative AI, deep learning and a recommendation engine to generate travel itineraries based on a users age, interests and other criteria, with recommendations for specific restaurants, bars, attractions and more in a given destination. It can also provide booking options for flights, hotels and activities. The platform was developed using the power of multiple AI engines, including Googles Bard, OpenAIs ChatGPT and IBMs Watson, according to Mondee.

Abhi Key Features:

• Developed using the power of multiple AI engines, including Googles Bard, OpenAIs ChatGPT and IBMs Watson, according to Mondee.
• Uses a users age, interests and other criteria to generate travel itineraries.
• Available for free on the App Store and Google Play.

Maya

Maya is a chatbot created by trip planning company Live the World, using the same technology as ChatGPT. Users can tell Maya where they want to go, for how long and what theyd like to do, and the platform will draft up a high-level plan, which can be adjusted by the user. Once its ready, Maya transforms the draft into a fully fledged itinerary in less than a minute, equipped with links so a user can book what they want.

Maya Key Features:

• Built using the technology of ChatGPT.
• Travel itineraries include links so that users can easily book things ahead of time.
• Free on Live the Worlds website.

Eddy Travels

AI travel assistant tool Eddy Travelsis designed to help people find the best flights and hotels based on their destination, schedule and budget, all a user has to do is send a text or voice message. The chatbot can be easily integrated with popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Messages, WhatsApp and Telegram.

Eddy Travels

• Users can interact with the chatbot through either text or voice messages.
• Available as a browser, or can be integrated with other messaging apps.
• Free to use.

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Top AI Financial Assistants

Ally Financial

Allys chatbot can answer financial questions, handle money transfers and payments, and accept deposits. It also provides detailed information about a users bank accounts and transactions, as well as an analysis on saving and spending patterns. And using automated intelligence and customer data profiles, the bot learns a users interactions and transactional behavior over time so that it can better anticipate what they might need.

Ally Key Features:

• Users can initiate tasks with both text and voice commands.
• Handles money transfers, payments and deposits.
• Retains information about users interactions and transactional behavior over time so it can predict what they might need.

Cleo

Using natural language generation, Cleo offers financial advice and budgeting assistance, linking directly with a persons bank account so it can give more personalized responses. Users can even control the tone of advice given. For example, if they want to receive some tough love, they can have Cleo roast them and take inventory of their recent spending habits. Or, if they want to be hyped up, Cleo will remind them of all their good recent behavior. The platform has more traditional fintech features as well, including credit-building tools and cash advances.

Cleo Key Features:

• Helps users set specific budgets and goals, track their spending and more.
• Users can control the tone of voice Cleo takes while giving advice.
• Available for free on the App Store and Google Play.

Fyle

Fyle provides employee expense management assistance, handling everything from expense reporting to travel requests and advances. And it directly integrates with any Visa and Mastercard business credit card so that it can automatically send employees notifications about transactions. Fyle also integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks Online and Xero so that all expense data (receipts, card transactions, taxes) can be synced up and in one place.

Fyle Key Features:

• Integrates with business credit cards so it can automatically update employees about transactions.
• Employees can submit their receipts directly to Fyle through apps like Gmail, Outlook and Slack.
• Plans start at $6.99/mo per active user.

Tykr

Tykr is an AI financial assistant that helps users make better investment decisions, providing information on ETFs and cryptocurrency, as well as traditional stocks, depending on what the user is interested in. While it doesnt automate any investments, Tykr helps users in their research, generating simple summaries that identify safe and risky stocks and offer advice.

Tykr Key Features:

• Helps users make more informed investments in ETFs, cryptocurrency and traditional stocks.
• Identifies safe and risky stocks to invest in.
• Offers a $99.99/yr plan or a $29.99/mo plan.

What does an AI assistant do?

An AI assistant provides information and performs specific tasks like ordering products, managing calendars and creating travel itineraries. The goal of an AI assistant is to simplify users routines and enhance their productivity.

How do AI assistants work?

AI assistants often utilize natural language processing, deep learning and large language model technologies to process user text and speech and provide responses in a conversational manner.