These voice systems might eventually go from something you talk to on a device to something that’s in your head. Numerous companies—including Sony and Apple—have developed wireless earbuds with microphones, so your virtual helper might be able to coach you on dates and interviews or discreetly remind you to take your meds.

You might even be able to communicate back without making a sound. nasa has developed a system that uses sensors on the skin of the throat and neck to interpret nerve activity. When users silently move their tongues as if speaking, the system can tell what words they’re forming—even if they don’t produce any noise and barely move their lips.

Dea / G. Dagli Orti/ Getty; © Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello / on loan from the University of Virginia; str / Calvin Campbell / AP; Ben Margot / AP

2 | Talking Cereal Boxes

Your main AI agent won’t be the only new voice in your life. You’ll likely confront a cacophony of appliances and services chiming in, since companies want you to use their proprietary systems. Ryan Gavin, who oversees Microsoft’s Cortana, says that in 10 years you might select furniture at the mall and say, “Hey, Cortana, can you work with the Pottery Barn bot to arrange payment and delivery?” Consider this a digitally democratized version of the old power move: “Have your bot call my bot.”

Nova Spivack, a futurist and entrepreneur who works with AI, says a wearable device like Google Glass might, for example, recognize a book and then connect you to an online voice representing that book so you can ask it questions. Everything in the world could be up for a chat. (“Hello, box of Corn Flakes. Am I allergic to you?”) Your agent might also augment reality with visual overlays—showing you a grocery list as you shop or displaying facts about strangers as you meet them. All of which sounds rather intrusive. Not to worry, says Subbarao Kambhampati, the president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence: Future agents, like trusted friends, will be able to read you and know when to interrupt—and when to leave you alone.

3 | Smarter Together

In 1997, a reigning world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, lost a match to the supercomputer Deep Blue. He later found that even an amateur player armed with a mediocre computer could outmatch the smartest player or the most powerful computer working alone. Since then, others have pursued human-computer collaborations in the arts and sciences.

A subfield of AI called computational creativity forges algorithms that can write music, paint portraits, and tell jokes. So far the results haven’t threatened to put artists out of work, but these systems can augment human imagination. David Cope, a composer at UC Santa Cruz, created a program he named Emily Howell, with which he chats and shares musical ideas. “It is a conversationalist composer friend,” he says. “It is a true assistant.” She scores some music, he tells her what he likes and doesn’t like, and together they compose symphonies.