The Future Of Hybrid Work: 'Artificial, Artificial Intelligence.'

Ai will bring a new meaning to hybrid working, our digital avatars sweat the small stuff while we take care of the bigger questions.

The Mechanical Turk was the world's first Ai hoax. Unveiled in 1770 the self operating machine appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent. Over 80 years 'The Turk,' as it became known, won most of the games it played, defeating many challengers including Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. 'The Turk' was in fact a mechanical illusion, with a human chess master hiding in the cabinet beneath controlling the movements of a humanoid dummy above. My name's Napoleon and I just got Punk'd.

With digital avatars becoming indistinguishable from their human counterparts, will the Mechanical Turk system be revitalised and refurbished? Will the future of work see humans 'hiding inside the chess box' sending out infinite artificial versions of themselves to 'play chess' all over the Universes? 

In today's society, intelligent virtual assistants augment the human workforce by performing a wide range of tasks. The IVAs schedule meetings, take care of customer service and other B2B roles such as helping with registrations and re-engaging leads. The 'Intelligent Virtual Assistant Depts' within companies span multiple languages, geographies and timezones, they have their own identity and feature on the internal company phone lists and staffing organograms. They are an army of indispensable virtual colleagues.

But what if there was an intelligent, virtual version of you? A 'mini-me' that acted like you, a clone that thought like you, spoke like you and attended virtual meeting just like you.  An Ai based upon a real person - an 'artificial artificial intelligence.' 

Would other humans accept that they are interacting with the real deal? Would they know or care? Would we trust a digital version of ourselves to carry out tasks on our behalf, with the right tone and level of personalisation?

The visual side of the equation is close to being accomplished. Companies such as Reblika are building Web3 avatars that are finally bridging the "Uncanny Valley" - the term used to describe the unsettled feeling people have when faced with something that seems almost human - and Meta is touting lifelike avatars through your phone, meaning that our digital lifelike counterparts will soon be easily created and met with complete affinity.

Content wise Ai is already storming the barn. It has successfully composed the next Beatles song by  analysing all previous content from John, Paul, George and Ringo; so in theory it shouldn't have much trouble composing your next email response, tweet or Telegram simply by scanning  everything you have ever emailed, posted or presented. Complementing your written responses will be the video and voice version of yourself. Developments in digital twinning software from the likes of Synthesia will soon see your very own digital meat puppet taking phone calls and attending video calls on your behalf. 

Dutch DJ Don Diablo recently interviewed himself during the annual Amsterdam Dance Event conference. In conversation with his synthetic self he discussed how he was looking forward to one day letting his avatar take control of his life, sending 'him' out on the press circuit and star in music videos so Don himself can focus on creating the music itself.

In the future, outsourcing the more responsive tasks to our digital selves will enable us to prioritise more meaningful connections and give true meaning to 'hybrid working.' IRL interactions will take precedence and in person meetings will be where the chemistry is tested and the alchemy created, everything else will become hybrid and digitised.

Then, as the number of habitable universes increases the real fun begins. We will operate across many dimensions, all at the same time, in multiple industries, in multiple worlds. We will reap the rewards of our infinite, algorithmic pawns as we recline in the real world raking it in from the efforts and actions of our indistinguishable digital incarnations. Check mate.

*First published in Creative Review