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Comment by everdrive | Hacker News Reader

I'm still not very impressed by this, as it can be totally accomplished by a pad of paper and a pen.

I'm believe the most valid use of AI/ML is to perform tasks that people either cannot currently do, or cannot easily do. For example, ai-based up-scaling of old video game pre-renders. It's not really feasible for a person to do this well, unless you simply rebuild everything with a team of artists. And you could argue that up-scaling images for a video game is trivial, since all video games are trivial. But, the point is that the task at hand requires the help of a computer, whereas a to-do list, or using a light switch does not.

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Let's see the situations when you are setting those reminders -

1. In bed, all ready to fall asleep, you get up to get your notebook from your desk to add the reminder to your notebook.

2. Cooking with hands all messy, you wash your hands, dry them, go to your desk to add the reminder to your notebook.

3. Driving at 40mph, so you pull over in a parking lot, take out your notebook from your bag and add the reminder.

Yeah, I will take telling Google assistant to do this instead.

I gotta ask, can one not just use their memory and remember to write those things down in a few minutes/the morning? I know that kinda defeats the purpose of a notebook. But, like, remembering to write down to get more garlic should not be difficult in any way. Also, if one is so perturbed at forgetting things then some other questions and areas need to be explored. If one is having difficulty remembering things this much, I fear that there are much deeper issues and possibly some quite serious health problems at play.

Can one not just move closer to things instead of wearing glasses? Can one not just use their legs instead of driving?

Human memory is terrible and should be relied upon as infrequently as possible.

1. There's nothing wrong with keeping that same notebook by your bed. Also, you might wake your spouse up by talking to Google.

2. Don't get so messy when cooking, also it hardly matters if your temporary notebook gets a bit dirty.

3. Don't multitask when driving. Taking your eyes off the road is the main concern, but testing has shown driver's voice control systems to be distracting to a significant degree. And, voice assistants are at least somewhat similar.

> tasks that people either cannot currently do, or cannot easily do.

A todo entry or flipping lights via assistants also qualify as such tasks, if we broaden the definition of "easy". The flow from having the thought of an idea or a song to making a note or playing the song by just speaking out loud is just so convenient, without having to context switch from whatever one is doing. Controlling a set of IoT devices with custom commands is another good usecase.

Of course, not everyone has a workflow where a digital assistant fits well today. However, I expect that their usefulness will increase exponentially with time. We're surely heading to the sci-fi future where each house will have a personalized digital guardian responding to the wishes of the family, Jarvis style, no?

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