Skype

Microsoft has officially retired Skype, the video and voice-chat app. Skype was first released in 2003 by Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and four Estonian developers. In contrast to today’s centralized platforms approach, Skype used a decentralized peer-to-peer model. It was not the first Voice-IP application, but it was the first to achieve worldwide massive adoption.

If I tried to explain to my Generation Alpha kids what Skype was about, they probably would not understand. What was revolutionary about being able to call any phone number or have a video call with anyone in the world over the internet for essentially nothing? For them, it’s perfectly normal to play Roblox with their friends in different parts of the world while simultaneously using Messenger Kids for voice-chatting with them.

Instant global communications would have become ubiquitous one way or another. And then, like other technology, become invisible to us. The same will happen to AI. It will keep getting better, and one day we’ll take it for granted. We will find hard to imagine what not having an AI assistant was like.