MWC 2024 and the three A’s – Apps, APIs and AI
Another incredible pilgrimage for connectivity just concluded at MWC in Barcelona: over 101,000 humans from 205 countries hustling through the halls, stopping by the stands of the 2,700 exhibitors on their way to listen to the 1,100 speakers speaking at various stages.
I was fortunate enough to be one of them; MWC 2024 4YFN celebrated its 10th anniversary, my memories of the first one are still just as fresh.
Beyond all the usual focus on everything around connectivity, the theme across the event was around the MWC 2024 3 A’s : Apps, APIs and AI.
What I can see is the 3A’ s are on the way to converge into a singularity; let’s get some context first. In the 1980s, Hans Moravec, Rodney Brooks, and Marvin Minsky articulated the “Moravec’s Paradox” which summarises: “There are tasks which are difficult for humans but are easy for computers, and there are tasks which are easy for humans but are difficult for computers”.
In recent months, the paradox has been challenged, shattered. The task which was difficult for computers was “language” or rather “natural language”, the language which you and I speak and understand with relative ease: the human language.
AI, rather Generative AI and specifically the evolution of language models has shattered the language barriers between humans and machines.
This is extremely significant for our species, the “Sapir-Whorf hypothesis” named after the American linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf and his mentor Edward Sapir says: “Language shapes the way we think and determines what we can think about”.
MWC 2024 & Singularity
Let’s come back to the 3A’s at MWC 2024 and the convergence into a singularity. We’ll start with APIs. APIs are a language as well – a language used by machines; the language used by the API client to request an action into the API provider.
The API client and the providers are machines – computers – a piece of code running in some form of compute resource. And now that machine can process (let’s avoid the term “understand” for now) our own language, using LLMs.
So, in the near future, the provider of the service will be using natural language to get the request from the service consumer – instead of the need for a separate “language” (the API). The AI and API now converges into a singularity.
What about apps? There is an app for anything we can think of. I still remember, during the start of 3G days, we had a workshop on “apps” and we were asked to write down on a Post-It note what we expect from an app, I wrote jokingly: “I want an app which can make coffee”.
For many years now – office and hotel coffee machine feature an iPad-like screen where you touch an icon to make the coffee of your choice. Apps made my wish – literally – their command.
Apps are our gateways to digital services, but apps are an interface for machines towards humans and not the other way around: I must use the app to get the service, as specified by the provider of the service.
And now, when the language barrier between the machines and the humans has been shattered using the Gen AI revolution, we will be using the most natural, and efficient, user interface for us humans – yes, natural language, including our voices.
We have already started to see many apps are using natural language interfaces through voice. This is an interface from humans towards machines – not the other way around – which apps provided, and we never challenged it…
Even the smartphone ecosystem – which provided the platform for apps to become dominant – is being challenged: last year in November we saw the announcement of the “AI Pin” from Humane and CES saw the “Rabbit R1”, MWC 2024 demonstrated even more devices.
This concludes the ultimate convergence – this is humanisation.
Making the technical boundaries invisible between humans and machines.
At Sekura.id, we are passionately embracing this future state of singularity; SAFr (the Sekura API Framework) is using AI and machine learning to evolve towards the singularity.
Our SAFr APIs have evolved into the singularity journey from service-specific siloed and converging device and server-initiated siloes, and now we are working towards that ultimate singularity.
Fresh from MWC 2024, Sekura.id is looking forward to the MWC in the near future when that singularity – convergence of the 3A’s – apps, APIs and AI – is the theme.
Join us on our journey.
Gautam writes, “I am a technology enthusiast and a futurist & the Chief Technology Officer of Sekura.ID, the global leader for mobile identity services. We provide Identity verification, fraud management, authentication and security services using the insights and signals from the mobile network operators and mobile devices, adding intelligence through machine learning models.
I absolutely believe in humanising of the technological world and am very passionate about this. I work with mobile operators around the world and with industry players on mobile identity and hold patents on Identity and access control. I led the implementation of the mobile identity initiative – Mobile Connect in around 60 mobile operators across 30 countries while I was in GSMA, inventing mobile number verification for the industry.
I have also been advisor to startups in digital identity, healthcare, Internet of Things and Fraud and Security management. I recently did a TEDx talk to share my dream of a world without passwords and am the author of several blogs and articles on the humanisation of technology, including metaverse, web3 and IoT. I am a thought leader for digital identity, advocating solving the identity crisis in the digital world and I speak on making the digital world a safer place.”
