Suppressing AI assistants may be the best way to go

There is a time and place for everything. In the privacy of my own home, I have no problem saying “hey” to Google, Alexa, Siri, Meta, and occasionally Bixby. But in public? Where can other people perceive me? I’d rather crawl under a rock.

This has been one of my biggest gripes with AI gear these past few months. They all seem convinced that the best way to interact with AI assistants is actually TALK to them, not unlike the movie She. In reality, I’ve rarely seen my friends and family use their phone’s assistants when we’re hanging out in private and never out in public. So it felt like an “Aha!” Small! moment when, during the WWDC keynote last week, Apple mentioned that iOS 18 will let you type in Siri.

Technically, you can already do this through your iPhone’s accessibility settings. (Go to Accessibility > Siri > Type to Siri.) This brings up a fairly bare window and keyboard for you to type a command. But in iOS 18, Apple embraces this feature, allowing you to double-tap the bottom of the screen to bring up a Siri keyboard. You’ll also be able to see quick suggestions that you can just tap instead of typing (or saying) an entire question.

There are a number of reasons why this just makes sense. While digital assistants have gotten better at understanding commands, it’s still difficult to speak naturally to them. At home, I feel myself affecting a certain pitch and tone when I use a clever word. I find myself thinking ahead about how I want to phrase a question. Despite myself, I still occasionally fail when I ask Google to turn the living room lights down to 25 percent brightness. I feel even more self-conscious if I have to do it in public.

Outside, it’s also incredibly noisy. While testing the multimodal AI features of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, I was often told by the AI ​​that the glasses weren’t listening to me properly. Either my environment was too loud, or I was subconsciously so embarrassed that I spoke too quietly for the device to clearly understand what I was saying. This led to a ton of frustration, which, in turn, made me drop my phone – the exact opposite of what the AI ​​hardware wants me to do.

It’s not just new AI tools. Talking into a smartwatch looks cool if you’re James Bond. Most of us are not. If anything, most people I see doing it look a little confused and frustrated. Is this pointless? Yes. But awareness is a big reason why people may be hesitant to experiment with voice-controlled assistants when they’re out and about. A 2018 PwC survey on voice assistant use found that 74 percent of consumers prefer to use voice assistants at home, with participants saying that using them in public “just seems weird.” In the same survey, a lack of trust was identified as another key barrier to using voice assistants in general – people simply didn’t trust that a voice assistant would understand commands correctly. If experience tells you that an AI assistant won’t understand you, why bother trying to use it in a place where you’re more likely to be judged? (Also, imagine saying “Hey Siri” and activating your travel companions’ iPhones. A new nightmare unlocked.)

Tech logistics aside, typing with your AI assistant also affords you a greater degree of privacy. I don’t need people to know what I’m doing on my phone, even if it’s something as innocuous as playing a song or setting a timer. I especially don’t want to dictate texts out loud when others can hear me. Writing these types of questions allows me to keep my business to myself – and, for that, I’m happy to sacrifice some hands-off skills.

I’m not denying that there are reasons why it might need to talk to an assistant, even in public settings. Voice commands are especially useful if you are hands-free or driving a car. But having multiple ways to interact with AI assistants allows them to better fit the way we want to use our devices — rather than forcing everyone to adopt new paradigms. Maybe one day, it won’t be weird to talk to a chatbot out loud while walking down the street. For most people, that day is not today. And until such a time comes, I will gladly write to Siri.