Arguing on Interfaces: From Obligation to Omnipotence

Two days ago, during “The Android Show,” Google unveiled what it calls a new category of laptop: the Googlebook. The basic idea is to explore what a laptop and its operating system would look and function like if they were built and designed from the ground up around AI at its core. According to Google’s vision, an “operating system” is to become an “intelligence system,” and the mouse pointer is to become the “Magic Pointer.” This keeps them within the established canon, where the marketing around AI often flirts with the infantilizing narrative of magic.1 Things are happening in such a wondrous way that they can only be magic. Wherever Big Tech seeks to infuse every aspect with AI, the reactions of many users are, not surprisingly, highly ambivalent, tending to be critical and dismissive.2 Of course, one should view every announcement made by big AI tech companies with a critical eye, since their primary concern is asserting their market leadership and justifying investments worth…