Recall, Limitless, Gemini: Inside AI memory machines

Humans are very bad at remembering things. We forget things over time; we fail to remember them in the first place because we aren’t good at paying attention; we misremember things because of our inherent biases and the way we view the world. There’s a lot going on, and we don’t retain much of it for long.

Maybe AI can fix this. It seems we’ll find out soon. For example, Microsoft is doing this Big bet on recallAn app that promises to use AI to collect, store, organize, and regurgitate everything you do and see on your computer. (Imagine if you could ask your computer, “What article about bees did I read the other day? What timeline was mentioned in it?”) At this year’s Google I/O, the most impressive AI demo was a way Remember where you left your glasses. Apple thinks you can use AI to create photo albums and even emotional videos to remember the best moments. And companies like perception And Dropbox They’re building AI into their own devices to help you find and remember all your meetings and tasks. They all promise the same thing: don’t worry about remembering things because the computer will do it for you. And it will do it faster and better.

But of this episode The VergecastWe spoke to someone who’s been working on this problem for a long time: Dan Siroker, CEO BoundlessWe talk about what it takes to make a great memory aid, how we can use them in the future, and why it’s so difficult to get it right.

We also talk about the human aspect of it – what changes in our lives when we stop forgetting things? Is remembering your friend’s birthday different when it’s actually an AI model remembering? And will these tools ever be useful outside of work? Tools like Limitless are coming out fast and getting better fast, and we have to figure out how to keep up with them.

If you want to learn more about everything discussed in this episode, here are some links: