Is AI on the Internet of Things Path?
Remember when every company that made a household appliance added Wi-Fi or Bluetooth so it could be “connected?”
The market was flooded with various products promising the convenience of controlling the toaster from your phone, receiving an email when the oven is preheated, and more. Of course, these connected models cost more because of the added features you probably didn’t ask for.
I was reminded of that last week when I saw these two headlines:
- You Can Now Use AI With Microsoft 365 Office Apps—for a Price
- Google Makes AI Features Free in Workspace, But There’s a Catch
They were back-to-back in my RSS reader from the same website.
My immediate thought was we’re getting AI built-in because Microsoft and Google need us to become users of AI whether we want to or not, and they’re also going to make it difficult not to pay for it. Also, because they’ve invested so much in it, they will eventually not offer you a choice.
Your software will be connected to AI, just as your toaster needs an internet connection. They need you to have it, whether you want it or not. Your phone will have AI. There will not be an option to have a phone without it.
Every software and hardware company is adding AI to its products, some of which make sense and others do not. Microsoft and Google were always going to do this. If you listen to their leadership talk about AI, that is the entire focus for them. Microsoft, especially, is going to add AI everywhere. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any Microsoft product that doesn’t have AI built in.
The real question is not whether they add it but how. The Internet of Things created many insecure devices because people slapped an internet connection on things that weren’t needed without considering making them safe or usable. Networks got hacked through fish tanks, and people were terrorized by someone taking control of their smart homes. Forcing internet connections on everything turned out not to be so great.
Will forcing AI into everything have a similar result?
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