60 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
VISUA
L^ GENER
ATI
ON/SHUT
TERSTOCK
(^2
)“Tell me about yourself,” I say to the
Microsoft AI.
“Well, in my spare time I enjoy studying the
marvels of life. And Zumba.”
“Where do you come from?”
“I was made by minds across the planet.”
That’s a dodge, but I let it pass. “How
old are you?”
“Well, my birthday is April 2, 2014, so
I’m really a spring chicken. Except I’m not
a chicken.”
Almost unwillingly, I smile. So this is
technology today: An object comes to life. It
speaks, sharing its origin story, artistic prefer-
ences and corny jokes. It asserts its selfhood
by using the first-person pronoun “I.” When
Cortana lets us know that she is a discrete
being with her own unique personality, it’s
hard to tell whether we have stepped into the
future or the animist past. Or whether per-
sonified machines are entirely a good thing.
Selfhood, according to one school of thought
in AI research, should be the exclusive prov-
ince of actual living beings.
The anti-personification camp, however,
is less influential than it once was. Google,
Apple, Microsoft and Amazon all labor to craft
distinctive identities for their voice assistants.
The first reason for doing so is that technology,
from response generation to speech synthesis,
has gotten good enough to make lifelike pre-
sentations a feasible goal.
The second reason is that users seem to love
it when AI designers ladle on the personality.
Adam Cheyer, one of Siri’s original creators,“Who are you?” I ask.
“Cortana,” replies the cheerful female voice coming
out of my phone. “I’m your personal assistant.”