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33 MIN READ TIME

ALEXA, PLEASE SAVE THE WORLD

DISRUPTIVE

KIDS TODAY will grow up thinking a keyboard is some antediluvian tool like an abacus or butter churn, which they might encounter only because it’s nailed to a wall of a TGI Fridays.

Voice is taking over as the way we interact with technology and input words. Actually, it was supposed to have taken over a long time ago. Back in 1998, I wrote a column for USA Today saying that “speech-recognition technology looks ready to change the world,” though I also noted that when I tried to say “two turntables and a microphone” into the latest and greatest speech-recognition software, it thought I said something like “two torn labels and an ice cream cone.” Turns out that was about 20 years too soon.

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