Welcome to theInvisible Revolution
Source: Allison Linn
Think of your favorite pieces of technology. These are the things that you use every day for work and play, and pretty much can’t live without.
Chances are, at least one of them is a gadget – your phone, maybe, or your gaming console.
But if you really think about it, chances also are good that many of your most beloved technologies are no longer made of plastic, metal and glass.
Maybe it’s a streaming video service you use to binge watch “Game of Thrones” or an app that lets you track your steps and calories so you can fit into those jeans you wore back in high school. Maybe it’s a virtual assistant that helps you remember where your meetings are and when you need to take your medicine, or an e-reader that lets you get lost in your favorite book via your phone, tablet or even car speakers.
Perhaps, quietly and without even realizing it, your most beloved technologies have gone from being things you hold to services you rely on, and that exist everywhere and nowhere. Instead of the gadgets themselves, they are tools that you expect to be able to use on any type of gadget: Your phone, your PC, maybe even your TV.
We are on the cusp of creating a world in which technology is increasingly pervasive but is also increasingly invisible.
They are part of what Harry Shum, executive vice president in charge of Microsoft’s Technology and Research division, refers to as an “invisible revolution.”
“We are on the cusp of creating a world in which technology is increasingly pervasive but is also increasingly invisible,” Shum said.
This invisible revolution has only become possible because of technologies that didn’t exist a decade or so ago, such as massive cloud computing centers and recent discoveries in the field of artificial intelligence. But fundamentally, the problems it will solve are ones that humans have struggled with forever.
Consider this: A few years ago, a person who spoke only Mandarin and a person who spoke only English would not have been able to have a real-time conversation without the aid of a human translator – something that is out of reach for most people.
But now, there’s Skype Translator. It’s a technology that lets you talk, in real time, to someone with whom you share no common language. That’s a technological marvel that many have compared to science fiction, but it’s also an opportunity to literally help people understand each other better.
“Breaking down the barriers between people is just so important,” Shum said.
Anywhere and on any device
The next generation of groundbreaking, life-changing technologies goes far beyond keyboards, screen, cell phones, cameras, watches and hard drives.
Increasingly, these devices are getting their computing power from the cloud, where thousands of computers are working to make it easier for you to find an email from five years ago and for a scientists to prevent the next deadly disease outbreak.
“The most powerful computer nowadays is in the cloud. You don't even see it,” Shum said.
Thanks in part to cloud computing, we’ve come to expect that we will be able to use these technologies wherever we are and with whatever gadget we have in front of us. After all, two-thirds of Americans own at least two personal digital devices, and a little more than one third have three: a phone, laptop and tablet, according to Pew Research Center.
“Mobile-first doesn’t mean that it’s just about our mobile phone. Mobile-first really means that anywhere you go – home, on the road, travelling, in your office, in your lab – your experience comes with you,” Shum said.
These new technologies are being designed so that they can be used by most people, and in most circumstances, regardless of whether the person has a smart phone or a laptop, is fluent in the language or a non-native speaker, or has other physical needs or challenges.
“You can talk, you can gesture, you can move, you can use your facial expression. The computer is everywhere and the computer can see you – but you don’t need to face the computer,” Shum said.
The invisible revolution is reliant on artificial intelligence technologies such as machine learning. That’s when a computer learns how to do something better – like understand your voice or automatically fix your typos – as it gets more data.
But, Shum said, it’s not about computers replacing humans. Instead, it’s about using technology to allow people to do things better and more easily.
“Microsoft has a very clear view on how we actually think about artificial intelligence. The AI effort is all about enabling Microsoft users – customers – to realize their potential,” Shum said.
From farming to family commitments
The invisible revolution is behind efforts to make farming more sustainable and affordable, to allow people from different cultures to understand each other and to help people to breathe healthier air.
It’s also having a practical effect on our day-to-day lives: It’s powering tools that help you remember the commitments you made to your boss and to remind you who you are meeting with today.
This invisible revolution also is making technology more personal and personalized: It’s about making technology that interacts with you more like a friend than a gadget, and that understands your voice, your family’s schedule and your work commitments.
In many ways, these advancements are already happening, without us really noticing. We take for granted that our emails will be available to us on any gadget, for example, and we increasingly expect to be able to talk to our devices instead of type into them.
“A lot of these ideas have been around, but we’re starting to get to critical mass,” said Rob Lefferts, who previously served as Microsoft’s general manager for Office Extensibility and whose products rely heavily on the tools of the invisible revolution. “It’s starting to be a breakthrough moment.”
Making Time
Shorter meetings, easier time management and more machine learning ‘magic’
“I’m so busy!”
It’s the 21st century lament that has us fretting about choosing meetings over family meals, getting too little sleep and how to deal with too much stress.
Technology can't add hours to our days, but it does promise to help us get better at using the time we have, with tools that chip away at the drudgery that bogs down our days. That includes things like finding that document someone sent you four weeks ago, figuring out who else at your company could help you with a new project, wrestling with technology you rarely use and even writing up to-do lists.
At the very least, it will help us keep track of all those things we were too busy to get to today – so we can have another go at them tomorrow.
Meetings that suck less
Think about the last time you walked into a conference room for a meeting. Chances are, you were thinking about mundane things – which chair looks most comfortable, and are there snacks? – as well as more practical matters like, “Why does that woman on the right look familiar?” and “Oops, was I supposed to read some report or something before I got here?”
If you were leading the meeting, you might have gotten that butterfly feeling in your stomach, wondering if you would be able to get that projector to show your PowerPoint presentation or be able to successfully call into the conference line.
Patrick Pantel imagines a world in which you can leave all those worries at the conference room door. In his vision, a tool has scanned your meeting invitation and told you a bit about the people in the meeting – what they do, how you know them, when you last worked together – and reminded you what you needed to do to prep for the meeting.
What’s more, a sensor in the room has already recognized your computer, tablet or phone, and it’s automatically loading your presentation and dialing into the conference call line.
Pantel, a principal research manager at Microsoft Research, said that ultimately, these tools could lead to something we can all enjoy: shorter meetings. He figures your average 60-minute meeting could be taken care of in 45 minutes if you didn’t have to spend time fooling with equipment and figuring out who everyone is and why they’re there.
Pantel is one of the brains behind Microsoft Graph, a new set of tools that Microsoft is hoping developers will use to create all sorts of things to make our workdays easier and more efficient.
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