The downfall of the virtual assistant (so far)

It’s tough to do much of anything involving technology these days without running into a virtual assistant.

Pick up your Android phone or Chromebook, and there’s Google Assistant waiting for a chat. Power up any Amazon-made gadget, and Alexa’s standing by with an open ear. Apple’s got Siri, poor Samsung’s got Bixby, and even random companies like Bank of America are getting in on the action with their own woefully unnecessary A.I. personalities (sorry, “Erica”).

We’ve talked plenty about the reasons why everyone and their mother wants you to get friendly with their flavor of robot aid — and why that, in turn, has led to what I call the post-OS era, in which a device’s operating system is less important than the virtual assistant threaded throughout it. It’s no coincidence that Google is slowly expanding Assistant into a platform of its own, and what we’re seeing now is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg.

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