While smartphones are quickly becoming the primary way people interact with the world around them, two major technology companies are developing more sophisticated AI tools to keep your attention on the physical environment. Google's Project Astra and Apple's next-generation Siri still present the possibilities of how we will transact with technology in the interactive environment where we can be more present rather than just pressing buttons and basically just operating the technology that surrounds us.

The Limitation of Screens

These essential attributes of a modern civilization, The technological advancement in the past few decades has seen smartphones become essential commodities. Specifically, millennials and generation Z have grown up with the internet and various forms of technology as a part of their daily lives, Therefore, they might find it hard to comprehend how people used to carry out their activities without this technology in their lives.

However, this reliance on smartphones comes with a significant downside: the constant inevitability to look down on the physical screen more often than not at the social environment around us.

Whether the task is to find the working of a new city through Google Maps or watch a new YouTube tutorial, the audience is bound to look at a screen. This has further created physical and visual barriers that have raised concerns from many individuals regarding its effects on social relations and health.

There is a recognised limitation that smart assistance to date is locked in the equipment and there is an increasing desire to enhance this experience and normalize this as a part of daily experience.

Project Astra

In unveiling the vision of where we are headed with AI at its recent I/O 2024, Google gave us the official sneak peek of Project Astra. This initiative is meant to promote reality encapsulation by integrating AI into smart glasses. The illustrations showed that with these glasses based on Google's Gemini language model, the user is capable of interacting with the environment.

The idea implemented in Project Astra is to fulfill the dream of wearable technology in a world in which people neglect their smartphones in their pockets and information is projected directly onto the lenses. Augmented reality enabled through a built-in camera lets the AI view and decipher the environment for directions, search results and notifications without the need for the user to look at a screen. They regard this technology as a means that will allow users to remain fully aware of all that is taking place around them, as opposed to the way people are currently limited by the use of smartphones.

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Apple's Next-Generation Siri

Apple is also progressing significantly in the development of artificial intelligence, there are whispers of a massive update of Siri at the next WWDC scheduled for 2024. The next version of Siri is reportedly to tap into additional skills and possibly be based on Google's Gemini AI. This is an update that will turn the basic Siri assistant into a highly intelligent conversational entity that could actually constructively engage the user and respond to the environment it finds itself functioning in.

New changes expected in Siri are that it would become a significantly better personal assistant, one that knows what you need even before you ask. By utilizing AI to process and interpret contextual information, Siri could offer real-time assistance through devices such as smart glasses. This would enable users to receive help without diverting their attention from their surroundings, further enhancing their ability to live in the moment.

Implications for Daily Life and Social Media

With further advances in AI technology, these tools become integral in the utilization of advanced everyday devices. For instance, if the person constructing a tree house opted for a smart glass tutorial, they would be able to work on the structure as instructed while having an eye on the nature around them. Likewise, a student may be given an actual lesson on mathematics problems solved through the AI incorporated glasses, probably to make learning a more exciting process.

In turn, this shift in technology could change the dynamics and approach to using social media or interacting with content. This raises the hope that, through their integration with artificial intelligence, their use might discourage people from using their smartphones as frequently as most of them do, hence avoiding the addictive behaviors. It allowed people to document their daily experiences and interact with others without feeling the need to go back to their phones every 10 minutes and post about it on social media.

These product advances from Google and Apple gave a promise that technology will add value and not a hindrance to make real-world interaction.

Project Astra, as well as the next generation of Siri are plenty more signs of natural progression towards introducing artificial intelligence into our everyday lives in a much more quantum and conscious manner. These specific technologies, in the future developments, are promising to change the notion and form of how we interface with the digital world, where it becomes seamless and the computer no longer imposes itself in the process.

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