Google Assistant

I was a bit surprised when the notification popped up to tell me that my new panorama was ready. I’d shot the photos for it, of course, but I hadn’t gotten around to putting them together. And then it followed it up with an animation, assembled from a burst of photos, and put a filter on yet more photos.

I’m not sure when my Google account started doing this. I think I might have turned Google Assistant on accidentally. It’s ability to detect what I intended to do with the photos is a bit unsettling. 

This kind of AI-assistant automation is becoming more prevalent, no doubt inching towards the Star Trek computer we always wanted. But, for me personally, this is the first time an AI I didn’t know has given me a present.

I’ve had bots give me presents before, of course: Appropriate Tributes sent a tweet to me the other day, for example. But this is like getting a surprise present from a stranger.

It’s not an entirely bad feeling: there is some surprise and delight at the results. But it is unpleasant to have a stranger show up with a present, and it feels socially off.

I assume that I technically did opt-in, or at least I think I remember enabling some new Google service without realizing that it did this. And I have no idea what else it’s doing: what if it decides that it doesn’t like my photos or that I don’t need to own a copy of my own files and deletes them?

Don’t laugh: this actually happened with iTunes.

So there are many ethical and social issues with AI, particularly when it starts directly managing our things and inserting itself into our lives without waiting for explicit permission.

Though the point where I’m really going to feel weird is when the bot pops up and tells me that it’s written my next blog post for me…