把人工智慧推向大眾市場
What does it take to bring AI to the masses? A large number of everyday gadgets in which to embed the technology certainly helps.
要將人工智慧(AI)推向大眾，應該怎樣做？嵌入這種技術的大量日常電子產品肯定有幫助。
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.
蘋果(Apple)五年前推出數字助手Siri時，它還被人工智慧界視為一款無足輕重的產品，但自那以來，Siri已成為許多iPhone使用者使用的核心服務。
Data from all those users has helped in training the software and making it smarter.
來自所有這些使用者的資料為訓練這款軟體提供了幫助，讓它變得更加智慧。
On Wednesday, Samsung joined the AI race with the purchase of Viv, a start-up from the core group of engineers who created Siri.
上週三，三星(Samsung)通過收購Viv加入了人工智慧競賽，後者是由發明Siri的一群骨幹工程師建立的一家初創公司。
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的資料顯示，今年上半年，三星佔全球智慧手機出貨量的23%，因此，對Viv的智慧助手來說，三星擁有現成的啟動平臺。
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?
如果說語音應答式的人工智慧需要的僅僅是一個麥克風和一條網際網路連線，為什麼不把Viv大量應用於三星的電視機及其每年出貨的1億件家電（如冰箱）上呢？
Bundling their digital assistants with these devices and appliances guarantees Apple and Samsung wide distribution.
將自家的數字助手與這些裝置和家電捆綁在一起，保證了蘋果和三星的廣泛分銷。
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.
如果所購硬體裝置已經裝有一款深度整合的數字助手，使用者便不會再費力到應用商店下載另一款助手。
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.
那麼，谷歌(Google)在做些什麼呢？被普遍認為在所有大型科技公司中擁有最先進人工智慧的該公司，上週推出了自己的數字助手谷歌助理(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.
谷歌執行長桑德爾•皮查伊(Sundar Pichai，見上圖)表示，這不啻為谷歌的未來：一款智慧代理，將被用於查詢資訊、交流並執行任意數量的日常任務。
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.
他並未解釋這項技術還將擴大谷歌的廣告覆蓋面，但這款助手將會收集的所有額外資料的潛力是不言而喻的：這將成為終極的個性化智慧。
If digital assistants are that important, then Google’s opening salvo looks underwhelming.
如果說數字助手真的如此重要的話，那麼谷歌的第一波攻勢給人印象不深刻。
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，這款軟體作為移動即時資訊服務Allo的一部分首次亮相，後者將與早已站穩腳跟的服務（如Facebook旗下的Messenger)展開艱難競爭。
It will also be in Home, a smart speaker that goes on sale next month.
它也將被嵌入下個月上市的、名為Home的一款智慧音箱中。
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.
科技研究公司高德納(Gartner)預測，此類智慧音箱在4年後將出現於3.3%的居所——一個相當大的新市場，但並非谷歌商業模式所依賴的那種無處不在。
And then there are the Pixel and Pixel XL, Google’s first two high-end smartphones, announced this week.
然後就是谷歌上週釋出的兩款高階智慧手機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.
定位於與蘋果和三星的現有產品競爭，對Pixel系列手機的期待——兩款手機幾乎沒有別具一格的特徵——一開始就比較低。
The big question, of course, is why Google has not released Assistant to all Android makers.
當然，最大的問題在於谷歌為何不向所有Android手機制造商開放其智慧助手。
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時間完善軟體，那就應該很快擴大這款服務的分佈面。
But if it is holding the software back as a selling point for Pixel phones, it could spell trouble.
但如果谷歌守住這款軟體作為Pixel手機的賣點，那有可能預示前景不妙。
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.
谷歌強調稱，其新的硬體部門與Android事業群在運營上保持一段距離，兩個部門都在尋求對自身業務最具意義的戰略。
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.
谷歌助理將成為對此的首次考驗，較量兩面的利弊：一面是排他性的價值，另一面是最大可能分佈的優勢（就廣告覆蓋面和收集資料以訓練人工智慧而言）。
Even the Android platform is no guarantee of unhindered reach.
甚至安卓平臺也不能保證暢通無阻的覆蓋。
Samsung, like others, is obliged to bundle Google services in its phones.
與其他手機廠商一樣，三星不得不在自己的手機中捆綁谷歌的服務。
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.
但收購Viv給三星帶來了一項需要推廣的競爭性服務，這是三星和谷歌之間關係日益緊張的又一個標誌，三星希望抵禦其硬體利潤率遭受的擠壓。
Any attempt to release Assistant more widely would also run up against the highly fragmented state of the Android world.
更廣泛開放谷歌助理的任何嘗試，都將遭遇安卓世界處於高度割據狀態的現實。
Most phones run older versions of the software, severely limiting Google’s ability to reach large markets with its latest technology.
多數手機執行較舊版本的這款作業系統，嚴重限制了谷歌利用最新技術擴大市場覆蓋的能力。
All of this explains why Google is in the midst of another of its on-again, off-again moves into hardware.
所有這些解釋了為什麼谷歌再一次啟動了時斷時續打造硬體的程序。
Only this time, it has carved out a new division inside the company as a sign that it is — really, truly — serious.
只是這一次，谷歌已在公司內部建立了一個新部門，表明它的的確確是認真的。
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，人工智慧很可能將開創一個後智慧手機的運算世界，在這個世界，人工智慧將被嵌入所有物品——包括汽車。
The launch pad for Google’s hardware ambition may be smartphones and smart speakers, but who knows where it will end.
谷歌硬體雄心的啟動平臺可能是智慧手機和智慧音箱，但誰知道最終會是什麼。
