Meet Viv, the Artificial Intelligence That Will Change the Way You Live

The winds of change are blowing through Silicon Valley--not terribly unusual, granted, considering that something new seems to come out of that part of the world several times a year. But this time, we seem to be witnessing the opening of what promises to be a sea of change in computing: The joining of all our devices--including computers, smartphones, smart homes, and even smart cars--with the virtual synapses of a serviceable artificial intelligence, complete with realistic conversational abilities. We've already seen some earlier attempts at realizing this dream. But, some sassy dialogue notwithstanding, these machine "intelligences" have notorious limitations, something the designers of the newest entrant on the scene, Viv, hope to do away with once and for all. Viv's creators, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer--who also created Siri, before selling it to Apple--hope that their newest creation will become the portal through which users interface with the internet.