I am surprised no one here has noted that a device like this almost completely negates the need for literacy. That is huge. Right now people still need to interact with written words, both typing and reading. Realistically a quiet vocal based input device like this could have a UX built around it that does not require users to be literate at all.
How convenient! Literacy has always been a thorn to efficient society, as books too easily spread dangerous heretical propaganda. Now we can directly filter the quality of information and increase cultural unification. /j
That is my fear yeah, a continued dumbing down of society.
Literacy rates in the US are already garbage, this device may just make it worse. If people never have to read or write, why would they bother learning how?
Having a voice narrate one thing at a time to you does not have the same informational bandwidth as written content, labeled buttons, etc on a page/screen. Not even close.
Video has far less information density than a blog post. Heck 2 hour long podcasts have an information density of damn near zero. Yet those are the dominate form of online content consumption now.
I agree for productivity use cases it isn't suitable, but that is only important for information workers, which are not the largest segment of society. The fact is, Gen Z and Alpha are already having issues using the high information density desktop paradigm, and technology like this will only work to further erode the needed capabilities of the average citizen. Doesn't bode well for democracy and all that.
Hey Google stopped working reliably when the move to Gemini started. It either doesn't trigger, or it has fewer features. It sure as heck isn't accessible all the time whenever I am close to my phone anymore, and I'm on a Pixel 9.
