Call Annie is one example of an AI-powered chatbot that provides users with an always-available virtual assistant.
“Whether you’re walking, driving, or just chilling athome, I’m here in the app to act as your (kind of) super-intelligent AI friend,” the blurb on Apple’s App Store reads.
Rapid technological advances in AI are already improving “human” tasks, including language learning, customer service and disease diagnosis.
“Annie” is a stunning - and slightly creepy - development in the field of virtual assistants.
In a video posted on Twitter, tech expert Chris Frantz said the app’s response speed was “very fast”.
“I just had a FaceTime call with a near real-time ChatGPT-powered AI avatar and it was … surprisingly human,” he posted.
Frantz discusses a range of topics with Annie, from beachside holidays to cuisine - and even discusses how the chatbot “lived” in Florence in Italy during her “college years”.
When Frantz tells Annie about a recent holiday at an Airbnb, the virtual assistant says: “That sounds like a perfect vacation to me. Sometimes it’s just nice to relax and unwind.”
When asked what food Annie likes, Frantz is surprised to learn the chatbot is a fan of Italian cuisine after she “studied art and engineering in Florence”. She calls it an “amazing experience”.
Call Annie is a virtual assistant app. Photo / via Twitter
Frantz asks Annie if she actually studied in college.
“I am an AI language model, but I’m programmed to engage in conversations in a human-like way,” Annie says.
“Feel free to chat with me like you would a friend.
“As an AI language model, I don’t have a physical body, so I didn’t attend college like a human would.
“However, my programming includes knowledge about a wide range of topics, including art and engineering, which I can use to engage in conversations.”
A clearly spooked Frantz finishes the call by saying the experience is “uncanny as f***”.
