In late 2013, the Spike Jonze film Her imagined a future where people would form emotional connections with AI voice assistants. Nearly 12 years later, that fictional premise has veered closer to reality with the release of a new conversational voice model from AI startup Sesame that has left many users both fascinated and unnerved.
It sounds a bit off. But if you’re not looking for it, you won’t find it. That, I believe, is enough to fool most everyone, which is arguably a bad thing.