Should the future look like the future?

If we look at the present, there isn’t always what we expected 20 years ago. The things that have changed the world are often unexpected. Peter Thiel once said, "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters." I agree but what we want for the future is not always the best choice.

If we talk, for example, about the future of interfaces, there are some things I’d like to avoid. Often, we’re shown by Hollywood movies a future with a lot of holographic interfaces that are too annoying and complicated. I don’t want to live in a future like that.

Keep the simple simple

Interacting with a computer should be as simple as interacting with people. I hope to live in a future with less screens, where technology is invisible. In his essay, The Computer for the 21st Century, Mark Weiser said “The most profound technologies are those that disappear”. Invisible interfaces means that technology would be still present in our lives without being an obstacle, a friction in our tasks. The movie Her is a good blueprint for this scenario and how devices can support us. The alternative is an overstimulated scenario like now where it’s hard to focus and accomplish things, like the present.

Interacting with technology in the movie “Her”

Can we build a world in which people are present while still using technology?

Series like Black Mirror already showcased dystopian futures, warning us from the possible dangers of technology. Screens are our gateway to the digital world. It is often said that we are addicted to devices. More than anything else, we depend on the content within them, and social media are often polarizing. They create FOMO and divide people. Also, screens are cold and with their flat interfaces end up isolating us.

Bringing people back together

All these screens being bidimensional create barriers through people. If the present already looks like people are glued to their screens, in the future we should use technology to bring people back together. Technology should bring us closer, even if we are thousands of km away from each other. In some ways we have already achieved this. Just think of phone calls, texting, video calls. All examples of how technology can be a connector, a bridge between people.

Mark Zuckerberg interviewed in the metaverse

AR/VR < IRL

In a recent episode of Lex Fridman's podcast, he interviewed Mark Zuckerberg who was thousands of miles away. The 2 seemed to be in the same room thanks to Meta's VR.

Technology offers immense possibilities. On one hand you are giving people who live in remote places the opportunity to attend events, concerts, exhibitions. At the same time, however, this could bring people who live in big cities to isolate themselves in real life.

Voice First

We started by interacting with the machines and speaking their own language. Progress has brought us more and more intuitive and natural interfaces. As development progressed, we found ourselves using text to talk with AI. The conversations we have with humans, however, are simple, without need for prompt engineering, and soon we will get to that. This doesn’t mean that interfaces will be invisible and that interactions will be all by voice. It's voice first, not voice only but certainly natural language interfaces will be part of our daily lives. We still need other types of interactions that are faster than voice, in case of emergency. If you play video games or drive a race car on a track, you need a quick way to take action.

Don’t forget the gestures

The gestures are also no less. Apple has shown with the Vision Pro that we are capable of reinventing new gestures that go beyond the current ones. Jef Raskin, who worked on the first Macintosh, wrote a very interesting book in 2000 entitled "The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems." Although the book is more than 20 years old, it remains very timely and presents a set of timeless principles for designing interfaces of the future.

Brain, the ultimate interface

To deal with the possibility of being overtaken by machines in time, some companies are focusing on BCI (Brain Computer Interface). Like Neuralink, doing everything they can, to make a future where our brains are directly connected with external technology. This is to augment human capabilities, restore lost functions, or unlock new possibilities (such as telepathy). Even if it isn’t all fun and games as it is shown.

Multimodal + Multidimensional

To break down the barriers mentioned above, we need multimodal interactions and multidimensional interfaces. Multimodality in interactions, means having multiple options to choose from such as voice, gestures, and eye gaze. An holistic view that integrates multiple parts of the system. Multidimensionality in interfaces, meaning breaking down the barriers of flat design. Building interfaces that integrate into the space around us without being intrusive. Some of the elements of the puzzle are already here. If we take the hardware of the apple watch and airpods and integrate it with AI models (text, image and audio) we can achieve a screenless, seamless and sensing device. This may lead, for example, to earphones that translate languages in real time, and there are companies already working on this.

Humane's product demo, on the TED stage

The rise of AI devices

A decade ago, software was eating the world. Now software is the main character. Does this mean that hardware will become insignificant? No, we just need to design new products that allow us to blend in with technology. Hardware companies will need to support new devices that incorporate AI.

The future will be plural. Whether it's co-pilots or concierges, we need new products to replace dependence on screens. Humane is the first company that comes to mind when I think of this. Founded by two former Apple employees, the startup has been working in stealth mode for the past 6 years and raised Series C funding totaling $230 million. Until recently we had to rely on their patents to get some spoilers of the design. A few days ago, they unveiled their first device during a fashion show in Paris. It’s called the Humane AI Pin and should be out by the end of the year. It comes also with a frontal camera, reminding me of the movie Her, when the character tucks his phone into his shirt pocket so the AI can “see.”

There is an ongoing race in Silicon Valley to develop the next such devices, and in recent weeks, 2 more have been unveiled. They are very similar and both designed as necklace devices. The first is called Tab and is the product of young developer Avi Schiffmann. The second, on the other hand, is the Pendant, from the venture-backed startup Rewind. Both leverage artificial intelligence to collect data from daily conversations and synthesize them, with some differences.

As of now, AI can see, hear, and speak, and this opens up endless possibilities. Like Meta x Rayban's smart glasses that will be able to tell you what's in front of you by looking through the camera. Not to mention that concerts filmed through these glasses will finally substitute the raised arms of phone videos.

Multimodal AI wearable devices can be used also to control other devices, capture new media formats and interact with the world around it through voice commands. These kinds of wearable will allow us to “integrate AI into daily life” .

The other side of the coin is that these devices will continuously record through the camera or microphone. Companies will collect a huge amount of multimedia data (video, audio, biometric data) and other types (such as financial transactions). This data will end up in a cloud platform and can be retrieved at any time by asking the AI co-pilot who lives in the hardware. 

Does this sound dystopian? Nothing new because we have the same experience with smartphones now. 

A space with more voice-controlled technology doesn’t necessarily mean there will be fewer interfaces. At the same time the experience is gonna shift from screens to sound and lights and multimodality. It will be interesting to see the evolution and the responsibilities that will emerge: copywriters will become conversational designers and maybe light & sound designers are going to become the new UX designers.

For those who are curious

The Humane Interface, Jef Raskin book
Why the Movie "Her" is a Good Example of Design Fiction?
One of Humane's last patents
Humane’s TED talk
The last interface paper by Brian Roemmele