Question: Could AI ever come to a point where we could use it as a personal assistant in our everyday lives like Iron Man had Jarvis?

Carl Peter Robinson answered on 10 Jan 2024:

I don’t see why not. We have a kind of basic personal assistance already, with voice-activated smart home systems, smartphone assistants and “smart” functionality in cars, to name but a few examples. This is a first step towards a more comprehensive personal assistant system that I have no doubt companies are already working on: one that can travel with you everywhere, linked to all your devices (most likely through the cloud, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) and has access to a “You Database”. This database contains a multitude of your personal information, from your personal tastes, various health statistics taken from your wearable sensors, to any appointments you have or need to make (e.g., for doctors, shopping, family occasions, etc.).

The major caveat I foresee with these systems gives rise to the question, how much more of you are you willing to give to the companies that will offer these systems? What’s the price of all your private and personal data for the convenience of having your own Jarvis? Of course, the best option, and the one I would consider, is creating your own Jarvis-like system and serving all your data locally, such that the Big Tech companies cannot get at it.