<div><em>We have entered the age of the Intelligent Machines Filter, writes <strong>Atul Jalan</strong></em></div><div> </div><div>Mid-conversation, when asked what I do, I stumble. Businessman? Technocrat? Entrepreneur? Coder? Yes to all. But then, given our cute little habit of slotting people into narrow grooves, I have hesitations. So for now, let me call myself a rambler.</div><div> </div><div>Welcome then, to The Wired Rambler. All I can promise you is that the "Wired" bit will not deal with technology alone. So, Siri-ization…</div><div> </div><div>History, rather than gradual evolution, is a series of spurts. We advance, hit a filter and then accelerate to the next. We are done with the Tool, Industrial Revolution, Automation and Business Intelligence Filters. I believe we are in the Intelligent Machines Filter currently - when machines are capable of building on the data provided, themselves, in the direction you want them to.</div><div> </div><div>Is this just a phone? Your phone already understands your voice (including individual accents and modulations). It uses Language Modelling for context. It then adds Machine Learning to customize itself for you (after a while it auto-corrects to words you use oftener). With Gesture Recognition, your phone understands your actions as well. Now add to this Emotion Recognition (this demands that the machine understand social, cultural and individual contexts) and you have an intelligent machine that understands you; maybe even better than you understand yourself.</div><div> </div><div>This machines understanding, combined with the power of cloud computing, advanced analytical sciences and Big Data can bring us behavioural insights into every individual on this planet. It does sound like Carl Sagan, but it is true.</div><div> </div><div>Siri-ization consumerizes knowledge. Soon retail organisations will identify emotions like trust, expectation, attention, interest or lust the moment a consumer’s fingertips hit a keyboard or from gestures and body movement. Apply analytics and behavioural insights to this knowledge and you can trigger the right information flow to the customer.</div><div> </div><div>Now comes the best part. No user needs to understand underlying technologies - but all, can use it. This is what I call Siri-ization.</div><div> </div><div>Till yesterday, the power of advanced analytics was limited to analysts and data scientists; the rest depended on recommendations that trickled down. With Siri-ization everyone can benefit from analytics - figure what their next individual course of business action should be.</div><div> </div><div>This is possible because the machine already knows your customer and business perfectly. It knows all possible business contexts. It knows competitor pricing. It understands categories and preferences. It knows this morning’s trends. It knows where the customer is, now. It knows Victoria’s secret.</div><div> </div><div>Ask the machine, and you will receive a recommendation, real-time. This is what we used to call Artificial Intelligence. I prefer to call it Synthetic Intelligence, though. We are not faking it; with all these technologies that are crossing our path, we are duplicating the neural pathways of the brain - to create machines that are intelligent. Intelligent enough, to understand a million contexts, dice, analyze and bring the right answers. To everyone.</div><div> </div><div>Siri-ization will lead to true augmentation. Post Siri-ization of all technologies, what will humans do? David Sarnoff once said that the human brain must continue to frame the problems for machines to solve. Which means that our tomorrow lies in discovering skills and practices where the quality of human involvement can be deepened. And together, man and machine will collaborate to create a consumer environment and experience that will be unparalleled.</div><div> </div><div>True, there are a lot of questions that machines cannot answer today. But I would like to believe that there are more filters for us to pass through. Till then, let’s ask and receive.</div><div> </div><div><em>The author is founder of Manthan</em></div>
