When devices like Alexa and the Google equivalent came out, it seemed like we were finally entering the Star Trek era of assistant technology: where one could tell one’s computer to do something, and it would do so. Sadly, this seems to have been limited to functions that further corporate interests such as purchasing BrandItem from Storefront, streaming PopularSong from StreamingService, and for everything else it will action a web search on ContinuouslyDegradingSearchEngine.

I have some support needs that would be fulfilable by a technological assistant similar to what was envisioned in the 2013 movie Her, something that is able to process verbal requests into something that actually ties into apps and completes tasks. For example, I need a lot of reminders, but setting up those reminders in an app is a barrier due to how long it takes and how easy it is to select the wrong date. I would like to be able to press a button on my phone, say “please remind me to wash my interview clothes on Sunday”, and then have the assistant set up a reminder to do that.

I’m willing to do some initial setup for such a thing, such as pointing it at API endpoints for my tasks app, reading out words and phrases so it understands my accent, etc. But once specific tasks are set up, I’d like them to work without barriers, meaning that generative AI is probably not the right solution (?) since it seems to react differently to prompts every time.

Last time I looked, there was an open source project available but it was only able to tell you the current time and weather.