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Smartphones Could Make Illiteracy Unimportant

Even implying that a machine can comprehend what Bob Dylan is saying is groundbreaking.
Tech executives at the CES trade show in Las Vegas in 2017. Many companies are building artificial intelligence software that can understand nuanced speech and reply coherently.
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Kids today will grow up thinking a keyboard is some antediluvian tool like an abacus or butter churn, which they might encounter only because it’s nailed to a wall of a TGI Fridays.

Voice is taking over as the way we interact with technology and input words. Actually, it was supposed to have taken over a long time ago. Back in 1998, I wrote a column for saying that “speech-recognition technology looks ready to change the world,” though I also noted that when I tried to say “two turntables and a microphone” into the latest and greatest speech-recognition software, it thought I said something like “two

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