When doing research for a client building a technology for people with ASD, I realized that the trends I'm seeing with apps like Canary and with Apple's notification summaries aren't just ways to capitalize on the AI gold-rush but rather precursors to remote understanding.
I missed much of the initial excitement around artificial intelligence. While that revolution was unfolding, I was deep into work developing space exploration programs and integrated ground systems in Seattle. But the trends I see today are clear. The AI-boom is just a phase.
With AI we are optimizing systems that have existed for a long time, using a paradigm we've known for over 60 years. We're already seeing the paradigm shift slightly with AI Agents: state desirable outcome once, only prompt if output is way off the expected.
In the next phase, the need for language as a framework will diminish further. In the phase after that we'll see subconscious signals (captured with biometrics) transformed along with the semantics into something perceivable by another individual. Also known as telepathy.
Language was always scaffolding for the mind to abstract information to understand how complex things work, but the abstraction layer can now be outsourced to LLM to process. According to remarkable research on cognition, interfaces and perception at UC Irvine our minds might have been outsourcing like that for millennia.
Telepathy is scary, with trade-offs yet to be studied. With remote understanding, we'll bypass much of language altogether, direct human communication will be mostly used for the sake of emotional resonance. This will be a breakthrough most needed by the neurodivergent, and will open up possibilities previously unknown. This time for real. How many fake marriages and partnerships will survive? The future keeps on coming.