There’s a certain irony to artificial intelligence. I can go to ChatGPT (ChatGPT.com) and quickly and seamlessly get access to all the world’s information. Whatever I want to know, ChatGPT instantly serves it up. But, ironically, I don’t have the same quick and seamless access to all the information stored on the computer sitting in front of me.
Take, for example, my Articles folder, which currently contains 798 fascinating articles that I’ve read. I want these articles at hand because sometimes I’m eager to refresh my memory regarding something I’ve read. Of course, typically, I can’t find the article I had in mind.
Similarly, at present I have 64,299 emails in my inbox. Before I retired, I often needed to have access to earlier email threads to be clear on what was discussed. It would have been so convenient to simply speak to my computer and ask for the information I needed and have it immediately summarize the relevant email threads.
I want to be able to ask a question to my computer and have the answer be informed by all the documents, emails, text messages, photos, videos, and everything else residing in my computer’s memory.
The good news is that this capability is coming to your computer, phone, and tablet.
In June, Apple announced the coming of Apple Intelligence, bringing AI access to the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. In addition, Microsoft and Google are beginning to offer AI access to the documents, emails, and other information you may have on their platforms.
Some of Apple’s newly announced features will be available starting in September, with the rest of Apple Intelligence rolling out gradually over the succeeding months. The details are exciting, and I can’t wait.
Take email, for example. If you’ve had an email discussion on a particular topic, Apple Intelligence can access the thread, summarize it for you, and identify the questions that are awaiting your response. Going a step further, it can offer specific information from the discussion to include in your reply. And the Smart Reply feature even suggests a response.
When you have 64,299 emails in your inbox, this could be useful, don’t you think? Even Hillary Clinton would have appreciated it.
What else? I currently have 3,789 photos and 295 videos on my Mac (that are also available on my iPhone and iPad via iCloud). Of course, searching for a specific photo or video can be tedious. Apple says that their new Apple Intelligence will let you search this archive simply by describing the photo or video. As they say on their website, “Natural language can be used to search for specific photos, such as ‘Maya skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt,’ or ‘Katie with stickers on her face.’ ”
Of course, this new offering from Apple has a gazillion other amazing capabilities unrelated to searching your computer, such as automatically transcribing voice recordings and automatically making a movie using your photos and videos based on your description of what you want.
Google and Microsoft already offer a range of AI features on their platforms. For example, Google is embedding AI into Gmail, which can now summarize lengthy email threads, highlighting key points, noting actions that are required, and even suggesting a response.
In addition to accessing inbox content, Google’s new Gemini side panel (available to paying users) can access the content you have stored on Google Drive. This new feature can access your content to answer freeform questions such as, “Can you find the latest version of the project proposal that John sent me last week and summarize the main points?”
This is how it should be, and it feels like it will be a real game changer.
Microsoft’s approach to accessing the content on your computer is truly astonishing and goes even further than Apple and Google. It’s named Recall, and actually takes a screenshot of whatever’s on your screen every five seconds. Web page, email, article, photo, video—whatever it is that you’re doing, the Recall feature is recording it and saving it to a database on your computer. Microsoft says it’s like having a photographic memory built into your computer.
According to an article in the New York Times, you can ask a question such as, “I’m thinking of a video call I had with Joe recently when he was holding an ‘I Love New York’ coffee mug.” Recall will then find the recording of that specific video call.
Some users, however, said, “Um, I’m not sure I want my computer to keep a record of everything that appears on my screen.” Although Microsoft emphasized that all the data would remain on the person’s computer, as I write this, they’ve indefinitely postponed the release of this feature.
Still, it makes me optimistic that Microsoft and the other big tech companies realize we need more convenient access to the content on the computer in front of us.
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