A virtual assistant is a software agent that can perform a task or service for an individual. Sometimes the term "chatbot" is used to refer to virtual assistants in general or specifically accessed by online chats (or in some cases online chat programs for entertainment and not useful purposes).
By 2017, the ability and use of virtual assistants is growing rapidly, with new products entering the market. The online polls in May 2017 found the most widely used in the US were Apple's Siri (34%), Google Assistant (19%), Amazon Alexa (6%), and Microsoft Cortana (4%). Apple and Google have a large installed user base on smartphones. Microsoft has a large personal computer base, smartphone, and Windows-based smart speakers. Alexa has a large install base for smart speakers.
Video Virtual assistant
History
The first possible tool for digital speech recognition is the IBM Shoe Box, which was presented to the general public during 1962 Seattle World's Fair after the initial market launch in 1961. This early computer, developed nearly 20 years before the introduction of the first IBM Personal Computer. in 1981, was able to recognize 16 spoken words and numbers 0 through 9. The next milestone in the development of speech recognition technology was achieved in 1970 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with great support from the US Department of Defense and its DARPA agents. Their tool "Harpy" controls about 1000 words, the vocabulary of a three-year-old child. About ten years later the same group of scientists developed a system that could analyze not only individual words but the whole set of words made possible by the Hidden Markov Model. Thus, the earliest virtual assistants, who implemented voice recognition software were auto attendants and digital dictation digital software. In the 1990s digital speech recognition technology became a feature of personal computers with Microsoft, IBM, Philips and Lernout & amp; Hauspie fighting for customers. Much later the market launch of IBM's first smartphone Simon in 1994 laid the groundwork for a smart virtual assistant as we know it today. The first modern digital virtual assistant installed on the smartphone is Siri, which was introduced as an iPhone 4S feature on October 4, 2011. Apple Inc. developed Siri after the 2010 acquisition of Siri Inc., a spin-off from SRI International, which is a research institute financed by DARPA and the US Department of Defense.
Maps Virtual assistant
Interaction method
Virtual Assistants create jobs through:
- Text (online chats), especially in instant messaging apps or other apps
- Sound, for example with Amazon Alexa on Amazon Echo device, or Siri on iPhone
- By taking and/or uploading images, as in the case of Samsung Bixby on Samsung Galaxy S8
Some virtual assistants can be accessed through several methods, such as Google Assistant via chat in the Google Allo app and via voice on Google Home's smart speakers.
Virtual Assistants use natural language processing (NLP) to match user text or voice input to executable commands. Many continue to learn using artificial intelligence techniques including machine learning.
To enable virtual assistants by voice, wake words may be used. This is a word or group of words like "Alexa" or "OK ​​Google".
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Virtual assistants can be integrated into many types of platforms or, like Amazon Alexa, in some of them:
- To devices like smart speakers like Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod
- In instant messaging applications on both smartphones and over the Web, e.g. Facebook's M (virtual assistant) on Facebook and Facebook Messenger apps or via the Web
- Built into the mobile operating system (OS), such as Apple Siri on iOS devices and BlackBerry Assistants on BlackBerry 10 devices, or to desktop OS like Cortana on Microsoft Windows OS
- Built into a smartphone that does not depend on OS, like Bixby on Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8.
- In other mobile apps like Google Allo
- In instant messaging platforms, assistants from specific organizations, such as Aeromexico's Aerobot on Facebook Messenger or Wechat Secretary at WeChat
- Inside the mobile apps of certain companies and other organizations, such as Dom from Domino's Pizza
- On the smart watch
- In Android Wear equipment, cars and clothing.
- The previous generation of virtual assistants often worked on websites, such as Alaska Airlines' Tanya Jenn, or an interactive voice response system (IVR) such as American Airlines, IVR by Nuance.
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Services
Virtual assistants can provide a variety of services, and especially from Amazon Alexa and Google Assistants are growing day by day. These include:
- Provide information such as weather, facts from eg Wikipedia or IMDB, set an alarm, create a to-do list and a shopping list
- Play music from streaming services like Spotify and Pandora; playing radio stations; read audio books
- Play videos, TV shows or movies on television, stream from eg Netflix
- Trade Conversations, see below
- Complete and/or replace customer service by human. One report estimates that an online assistant automatically generates a 30% reduction in workload for call centers provided by humans.
Trading conversation
Conversation trading is e-commerce through various messaging, including through voice assistants but also live chat on e-commerce websites, live chats in messaging apps like WeChat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp and chatbots in messaging apps or websites.
Third party services
Amazon allows Alexa "Skills" and Google "Actions", essentially applications running on the assistant platform.
Developer platform
The platform that drives the most widely used virtual assistant is also used to power other solutions:
- Amazon Lex was opened to developers in April 2017. It involves natural language comprehension technology combined with automatic speech recognition and was introduced in November 2016.
- Google provides Actions on Google platform and Dialogflow for developers to create "Actions" for Google Assistant
- Apple provides SiriKit for developers to create extensions for Siri
- IBM Watson, although sometimes spoken of as virtual assistant is actually an entire artificial intelligence platform and community that drives several virtual assistants, chatbots. and many other types of solutions.
Previous generation
In previous generations of text-based virtual assistant chats, assistants are often represented by avatars (aka 'interactive online characters or automatic characters ) - these are known as embodied agents.
Complete assistant comparison
Economic relevance
The digital experience enabled by virtual assistants is regarded as one of the latest technological advances and the most promising consumer trends. Experts claim that the digital experience will achieve a weighted status that is comparable to the 'real' experience, if not becoming more sought and appreciated. This trend is verified by the large number of frequent users and the substantial growth in the number of virtual digital assistant users worldwide. By mid-2017, the number of virtual digital assistant users is often estimated at around 1 billion worldwide. In addition, it can be observed that virtual digital assistant technology is no longer limited to smartphone applications, but is present in many industry sectors (including automotive, telecommunications, retail, health and education). In response to significant R & D costs from companies in all sectors and mobile device implementation improvements, the market for voice recognition technology is predicted to grow at a 34.9% CAGR globally over the period 2016 to 2024 and thus surpass the global market size of USD 7 , 5 billion by 2024. According to an Ovum study, "the original digital assistant installation base" is projected to surpass the world population by 2021, with 7.5 billion active voice AI-capable devices. According to Ovum, at the time "Google Assistant will dominate the AI-capable sound device market with 23.3% market share, followed by Samsung Bixby (14.5%), Apple Siri (13.1%), Amazon Alexa (3, 9%), and Microsoft Cortana (2.3%). "
Considering the regional distribution of market leaders, North American companies (eg Nuance Communications, IBM, eGain) are expected to dominate the industry over the coming years, due to the significant impact of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and the company's mobility business model. In addition, increased demand for smartphone-assisted platforms is expected to further enhance the growth of the North American Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) industry. Despite its smaller size compared to the North American market, the intelligent virtual assistant industry of the Asia-Pacific region, with its main players based in India and China expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 40% (above the global average) over the 2016- 2024.
Security
In May 2018, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, published a paper that shows audio commands undetected because the human ear can be directly embedded into music or oral text, thus manipulating the virtual assistant into performing certain actions without the user noticing it.. The researchers made minor changes to the audio file, which canceled the sound patterns the voice recognition system wanted to detect. This is replaced by a voice that will be interpreted differently by the system and instructs it to dial a phone number, open a website or even transfer money. This possibility has been known since 2016, and has affected devices from Apple, Amazon, and Google.
See also
- Artificial intelligence app
- Chats
- Computer facial animation
- Expert system
- Smart agent
- Knowledge Navigator
- Natural language processing
- Reality simulation
- WebsitePal
- Software Agent
- Wizard (software)
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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