Silicon Valley has long dreamed of building a digital assistant capable enough to rid users of many of the tedious(乏味的，单调的) personal tasks that gobble up(吞噬，大量消耗) time and attention. Fictional representations, such as J.A.R.V.I.S.(《钢铁侠》中的智能助手) (Just a Rather Very Intelligent System) in the “Iron Man” films, set expectations high. In 2010 Apple, the iPhone-maker, acquired Siri, one such aide. It turned out to be disappointingly moronic(愚蠢的，低能的).
硅谷长期以来一直梦想打造一款足够强大的数字助手，帮助用户摆脱许多耗费时间和精力的繁琐个人事务。虚构作品中的形象，比如《钢铁侠》系列电影中的J.A.R.V.I.S.（全称“只是一个非常智能的系统”），将人们的期望值推得很高。2010年，iPhone制造商苹果收购了Siri——这样一款助手。结果它却蠢得令人失望。
Now, amid the current wave of investment in artificial intelligence, the era of personal AI agents may at last have arrived. In the past two months Meta, a social-media giant, and Instinct, a startup, have released two such bots to great fanfare(大张旗鼓地). Instinct’s assistants, which users contact through Apple’s iMessage service or Meta’s WhatsApp, are already checking users into flights, sourcing(采购，寻找来源) sold-out concert tickets and arranging dinners with friends, among much else. Muse, Meta’s offering(产品，服务), has similar powers, but can be reached via WhatsApp, a web browser, a mobile app—or, from later this year, Meta’s smart glasses.
如今，在人工智能投资热潮中，个人AI助手的时代或许终于到来了。过去两个月里，社交媒体巨头Meta和初创公司Instinct大张旗鼓地发布了两款此类机器人。Instinct的助手——用户通过苹果的iMessage服务或Meta的WhatsApp联系它们——已经在帮用户办理航班值机、淘售罄的演唱会门票、安排与朋友的晚餐等等。Meta的产品Muse拥有类似能力，但可以通过WhatsApp、网页浏览器、移动应用——或者从今年晚些时候起，通过Meta的智能眼镜——来访问。
The big shift from earlier generations of digital assistants, explains M.G. Siegler, an investor and blogger, is that these new bots can work proactively, rather than reacting only to what users explicitly ask for.(投资者兼博主M.G. Siegler解释说，与早几代数字助手相比，最大的转变在于这些新机器人能够主动工作，而不是仅仅对用户明确提出的要求做出反应。) Instinct “really just works in the way I believe we all want AI to act”, says Noah Shinn, the startup’s 24-year-old founder.
投资者兼博主M.G. Siegler解释说，与早几代数字助手相比，最大的转变在于这些新机器人能够主动工作，而不是仅仅对用户明确提出的要求做出反应。Instinct“真的就以我相信我们所有人都希望AI采取的方式运作”，这家初创公司24岁的创始人Noah Shinn说。