Amazon is banking on ambient computing, not applications, as the future of personal AI.
Along with the launch of Bee’s new AI wearable devices, Panos Panay, who is SVP of devices, Alexa and Leo at Amazon, took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Thursday to talk more in-depth about the direction he sees personal computing taking.
“A lot of times what you’re doing right now – what we’re all doing right now – is we have to remember what we’re asking our tool to do for us,” Panay began, explaining that this is how we interact with our modern smartphones. “It’s like point, shoot, come back,” Panay continued. “I think we’re moving toward a world (that) starts with ambient devices.”
By “ambient devices,” he means those that operate silently in the background, using sensors and AI to help you understand what needs to be done, instead of the other way around, where you tell the device what to do.
“Because it works in the background, you can stay more present. You can do more. You’re about to spend more time with people… you’re not afraid if you miss something. It’s incredibly powerful,” Panay said.
Amazon’s biggest entry into this space is the set of new Bee devices introduced Thursday, which include a bracelet that you can wear on your wrist or detach to wear as a pendant, as well as a new credit card-sized device that attaches magnetically to the back of your smartphone.
These gadgets passively record audio and take notes about your day, finding tasks, reminders, and information you may need to refer to later. To balance the need to be useful with user privacy, Bee devices don’t actually store the raw audio of your conversations; they process the audio in real time and then discard it when finished. Conversation transcripts are encrypted using keys created and controlled by your device. This means that no one else, including Amazon employees, can access these files unless you intentionally share them.
Panay said privacy is a key consideration for how these new ambient devices work.
“You have to give that control to customers,” he said. “Every product is different, but for Bee in particular, as an example in an ambient space like that, you have to design with privacy in mind. And that’s what we do. It’s essential.”
The executive, who arrived at Amazon after 19 years at Microsoft where he oversaw the development of Surface devices, has spent much of his life thinking about the evolution of personal computing. With Bee – and ambient computing in general – Panay also envisions a future in which the idea of interacting with applications becomes less important, as more tasks are handled via AI.
“Do I think we have a future where there is some balance – a whole generation that doesn’t say ‘give me the app’ for this, but says they should just understand what I need? Yes, I do. I think that transformation is coming. I think that’s the next generation,” he said.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the smartphone itself won’t continue to be an important personal computing device (as much as Amazon would like it to be an Alexa tablet or an Echo smart speaker), Panay pointed out. Instead, he believes a new generation of devices will emerge that use sensors to better understand users and bring intelligence to the world around you.
“I’m not a fan of the idea that one form factor is going to replace another. I don’t think that’s the case,” he said. “I think there is a layer of intelligence that ties all of this together…and it has to be useful.”
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