近来，一种能和人交谈的新技术变得越来越受欢迎。这种被称为“虚拟助手”的产品可以在我们的手机、电脑甚至是智能扬声器上找的到。它们可以给我们提供有用、琐碎的信息，但这些能和我们聊天的“助手”会取代并成为和我们日夜促膝长谈的挚友吗？

 

It's good to have friends that we can talk to and share our thoughts and opinions with. More importantly, they're people we can ask for help or advice. But recently it seems, many of us are developing a new relationship with a mystery person that we'll never meet!

 

I'm talking about virtual assistants or bots. These are pieces of software that we can talk to and it can talk back to us. Examples include Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana. It might be on your phone or computer or even a smart speaker in your home. They are changing the way we interact with technology - instead of typing on a computer keyboard or tapping on a tablet, we can now speak and a voice will answer.

 

The people behind these voices are called conversation designers. Tom Hewitson is one of them. He told the BBC "this is kind of changing [computers] into like an agent. They’re an active participant in the interaction and in guiding you to make the right decision." So he's saying this cutting-edge technology has the ability to think for itself and make its own decisions.

 

It is a scary thought that this virtual voice can think for you – will it stop us using our own brains and will we lose the ability to write things down or type? They are certainly clever, helping¹ you to book train tickets, give you the latest weather news or even tell you a joke. But are they really your new best friend?

 

One thing we can't do yet is to make chit-chat or small talk with it. We have to alter the way we speak. As Tom Hewitson says "We will develop our own kind of vernacular² for speaking with machines that will be subtly different from how we speak to other people… It can be much more brusque and to the point."

 

But there's no doubt this technology will soon be commonplace in our lives. This year Google Duplex was revealed, described by the company as artificial intelligence "for accomplishing real-world tasks over the phone". It's a type of chatbot that will allow you to, for example, chat to your hairdresser about when they can fit you in for a cut. Other companies are working on similar things. But before they perfect this new technology, don't forget who your real friends are!

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