把人工智能推向大众市场

What does it take to bring AI to the masses? A large number of everyday gadgets in which to embed the technology certainly helps.

要将人工智能(AI)推向大众，应该怎样做？嵌入这种技术的大量日常电子产品肯定有帮助。

Apple’s digital assistant, Siri, was considered a lightweight in AI circles when it appeared five years ago, but it has since become a core service for many iPhone owners.

苹果(Apple)五年前推出数字助手Siri时，它还被人工智能界视为一款无足轻重的产品，但自那以来，Siri已成为许多iPhone用户使用的核心服务。

Data from all those users has helped in training the software and making it smarter.

来自所有这些用户的数据为训练这款软件提供了帮助，让它变得更加智能。

On Wednesday, Samsung joined the AI race with the purchase of Viv, a start-up from the core group of engineers who created Siri.

上周三，三星(Samsung)通过收购Viv加入了人工智能竞赛，后者是由发明Siri的一群骨干工程师创建的一家初创公司。

Samsung made 23 per cent of the smartphones shipped in the first half of this year, according to IDC, so it has a ready launch pad for Viv’s smart assistant.

IDC的数据显示，今年上半年，三星占全球智能手机出货量的23%，因此，对Viv的智能助手来说，三星拥有现成的启动平台。

And if voice-responsive intelligence needs nothing more than a microphone and an internet connection, why should not Viv also make the leap into Samsung TVs and the 100m appliances such as fridges it ships each year?

如果说语音应答式的人工智能需要的仅仅是一个麦克风和一条互联网连接，为什么不把Viv大量应用于三星的电视机及其每年出货的1亿件家电（如冰箱）上呢？

Bundling their digital assistants with these devices and appliances guarantees Apple and Samsung wide distribution.

将自家的数字助手与这些设备和家电捆绑在一起，保证了苹果和三星的广泛分销。

Users probably would not bother to go to an app store and download another assistant, if there was already one deeply integrated into the hardware.

如果所购硬件设备已经装有一款深度集成的数字助手，用户便不会再费力到应用商店下载另一款助手。

So what of Google? The company widely considered to have the most advanced AI of any of the big tech companies took the wraps off its own digital assistant this week.

那么，谷歌(Google)在做些什么呢？被普遍认为在所有大型科技公司中拥有最先进人工智能的该公司，上周推出了自己的数字助手谷歌助理(Google Assistant)。

According to chief executive Sundar Pichai, this is nothing less than the future of Google: an intelligent agent that will be used to find information, communicate and carry out any number of everyday tasks.

谷歌首席执行官桑德尔•皮查伊(Sundar Pichai，见上图)表示，这不啻为谷歌的未来：一款智能代理，将被用于查找信息、交流并执行任意数量的日常任务。

He did not explain how the technology would also extend Google’s advertising reach, but the potential from all the extra data the assistant will collect was implicit: this will be the ultimate personalised intelligence.

他并未解释这项技术还将扩大谷歌的广告覆盖面，但这款助手将会收集的所有额外数据的潜力是不言而喻的：这将成为终极的个性化智能。

If digital assistants are that important, then Google’s opening salvo looks underwhelming.

如果说数字助手真的如此重要的话，那么谷歌的第一波攻势给人印象不深刻。

The software made its debut last month as part of Allo, a mobile messaging service that faces an uphill battle against entrenched services such as Facebook’s Messenger.

上月，这款软件作为移动即时信息服务Allo的一部分首次亮相，后者将与早已站稳脚跟的服务（如Facebook旗下的Messenger)展开艰难竞争。

It will also be in Home, a smart speaker that goes on sale next month.

它也将被嵌入下个月上市的、名为Home的一款智能音箱中。

Tech research firm Gartner forecasts that intelligent speakers like this will be in 3.3 per cent of homes four years from now — a sizeable new market, but hardly the kind of ubiquity that Google’s business model depends on.

科技研究公司高德纳(Gartner)预测，此类智能音箱在4年后将出现于3.3%的居所——一个相当大的新市场，但并非谷歌商业模式所依赖的那种无处不在。

And then there are the Pixel and Pixel XL, Google’s first two high-end smartphones, announced this week.

然后就是谷歌上周发布的两款高端智能手机Pixel和Pixel XL。

Positioned against existing products from Apple and Samsung, expectations for the Pixel phones — with few extra features to distinguish them — start out low.

定位于与苹果和三星的现有产品竞争，对Pixel系列手机的期待——两款手机几乎没有别具一格的特征——一开始就比较低。

The big question, of course, is why Google has not released Assistant to all Android makers.

当然，最大的问题在于谷歌为何不向所有Android手机制造商开放其智能助手。

If it simply wants a period to iron out any kinks, then wider distribution of the service should quickly follow.

如果谷歌只是想有一段时间完善软件，那就应该很快扩大这款服务的分布面。

But if it is holding the software back as a selling point for Pixel phones, it could spell trouble.

但如果谷歌守住这款软件作为Pixel手机的卖点，那有可能预示前景不妙。

Google has made much of the fact that its new hardware division is operating at arm’s length from the Android group, and that each is pursuing the strategies that make most sense to its own business.

谷歌强调称，其新的硬件部门与Android事业群在运营上保持一段距离，两个部门都在寻求对自身业务最具意义的战略。

Assistant could be the first test of that, pitting the value of exclusivity against the advantages — in terms of advertising reach and collecting data to train the AI — of the widest possible distribution.

谷歌助理将成为对此的首次考验，较量两面的利弊：一面是排他性的价值，另一面是最大可能分布的优势（就广告覆盖面和收集数据以训练人工智能而言）。

Even the Android platform is no guarantee of unhindered reach.

甚至安卓平台也不能保证畅通无阻的覆盖。

Samsung, like others, is obliged to bundle Google services in its phones.

与其他手机厂商一样，三星不得不在自己的手机中捆绑谷歌的服务。

But the Viv purchase gives it a rival service to promote, and is another sign of growing tensions between the companies as Samsung looks to defend against a squeeze in its hardware profit margins.

但收购Viv给三星带来了一项需要推广的竞争性服务，这是三星和谷歌之间关系日益紧张的又一个标志，三星希望抵御其硬件利润率遭受的挤压。

Any attempt to release Assistant more widely would also run up against the highly fragmented state of the Android world.

更广泛开放谷歌助理的任何尝试，都将遭遇安卓世界处于高度割据状态的现实。

Most phones run older versions of the software, severely limiting Google’s ability to reach large markets with its latest technology.

多数手机运行较旧版本的这款操作系统，严重限制了谷歌利用最新技术扩大市场覆盖的能力。

All of this explains why Google is in the midst of another of its on-again, off-again moves into hardware.

所有这些解释了为什么谷歌再一次启动了时断时续打造硬件的进程。

Only this time, it has carved out a new division inside the company as a sign that it is — really, truly — serious.

只是这一次，谷歌已在公司内部建立了一个新部门，表明它的的确确是认真的。

As Mr Pichai said this week, AI is likely to usher in a post-smartphone computing world, where intelligence is embedded in everything — including cars.

皮查伊日前表示，人工智能很可能将开创一个后智能手机的运算世界，在这个世界，人工智能将被嵌入所有物品——包括汽车。

The launch pad for Google’s hardware ambition may be smartphones and smart speakers, but who knows where it will end.

谷歌硬件雄心的启动平台可能是智能手机和智能音箱，但谁知道最终会是什么。