Google is a mirror of truths about ourselves. When we look into this mirror the internet stares back at us.
Your search history can reflect the truest sense of one’s self and Google often learns things about you the same time you do… and maybe even before in some cases. “Am I pregnant?”, “Do I have cancer?”, “How do I file for bankruptcy?”, etc, etc.
While these may be some of the more extreme scenarios, Google is often the first place people go to begin the discovery phase of life matters such as these- in addition to more common searches such as “bottomless brunch Chicago”, “Rapadito Columbian Restaurant reviews“, and let’s not forget the “erotic searches” that account for 13% of all web searches… yeah, that’s right, Google knows what you’re into. (My business partner, Jim O’Brien, and I have joked that someone should create an app that automatically sends your recent search history to your mother). Regardless of whatever you’re searching for, Google captures this data and is learning more and more about you based off your inquiries. But you are not alone.
Google is the most utilized platform for these types of searches by hundreds of millions of people every single day. Here is a site where you can go to see a real-time ticker of the number of Google searches being done just today… enjoy.
Consider these numbers. Currently, Google holds a 67.5% share of the US search market and an astounding 87.1% share of the mobile search market. In just one month, Google has 1.17 billion unique monthly users and a total of 11.944 billion monthly Google searches. (Random fun fact: 56% of Google users have Googled themselves… guilty) Also, consider that the number of people conducting online searches is continuously growing. One of Google’s primary missions is to connect the entire world through the internet… now that is a lot of mirrors.
That’s also big data at its, well, biggest. What is Google doing with all this data? Lots. However, some of their recent moves in the artificial intelligence space opens up a world of possibilities. As Google dives further into A.I. all of this big data will be mined, crafted and retargeted for consumer & commercial applications in ways that we can only imagine at this point. The movie “Her“, to me, is not too unrealistic. “Her” is about a lonely writer that develops an ‘unlikely’ relationship with his newly purchased operating system, Samantha, that’s designed to meet his every need. The movie and technology behind Samantha is seemingly a little far-fetched, but is it?
Many A.I. experts do not believe so at all. One expert, Stephen Wolfram, whose Wolfram Alpha drives the artificial intelligence-like component of Siri on the iPhone, thinks that an OS like Samantha as depicted in the film is not only possible, the technology behind it isn’t that far off. It is highly conceivable that within just the next 10-15 years, personal A.I. OS’s such as these will be available for consumer usage. And yes, I also believe some people will fall for their OS’s. This guy already fell in love with Siri. Whether or not the A.I. client falls in love back is TBD.
Who knows? If we keep feeding enough data to the big machine, Operating Systems just may even learn how to feel emotions, too…
“Technology is awesome”
-Brad Miller
Digital Mediascape 