With all of the Google Home Assistant users out there that clamor for a better alternative to the “OK Google” and “Hey Google” methods of accessing the Assistant mode on your phone or Google Home device, I have often wondered why calling it “GiGi” wouldn’t be the perfect solution. Even better than that would be to have to say nothing at all, and have those devices just know when you are speaking to the intelligent helper, but there is no practical way to do that, as well as no way to solve the implementation of having it always listening and trying to discern what the always on recording of your life means to privacy and recognition of a question asked of the “machine” vs. asking your dog if it’s hungry.
It seems to me that calling it Gigi makes the most sense. Apple uses Siri. Amazon is Alexa. Microsoft is… Well. Who really cares? Making it a woman’s name has precedence. Gigi is a nice name. Easy to say. Google has 2 G’s in it. Saying “OK Google what is the weather today” is way harder than “Gigi what is the weather today”. Two less syllables, and kids can never say Google right anyway (I have a 5 year old). The default voice for Assistant is a woman, so she can now be GiGi. Or GG, or whatever and it totally makes sense.
Google added manners a while back. Fire up Assistant and say “OK Google what time is it” and it responds. If you say “Thank you” you are saying it to a machine that responds to you with a polite response. But saying “Thanks GiGi” would be so much more personal and like your personal assistant, who has a name, who helps you every day, who is a part of your life, who is respected and valued as something other than a machine, that this just really makes sense.
My assistant needs a name. Google assistant is my go to life automator now, and I’m really tired of “OK Google”. Make her Gigi. Make her real. Do some fun stuff with deep fake Max Headroom type personalities that make her a member of my family or something – appearing in mirrors, TV’s, monitors, my Google Home devices, whatever. Have her follow me and use voice recognition or biometrics that have her travel with me to other people’s devices. Make Gigi have a persona that is removed from the machine, and part of my world.