A spinoff of the term "A.I." or Artificial
Intelligence, a "U.P.I." or User-Provisioned
Intelligence" is any user-configured, programmatic entity with the capacity to perform tasks like its specific user would. This might include any of the visual, linguistic, behavioral, or decision-making operations an A.I. would perform, but done in a way characteristically identical to the manner of the user being emulated.
A U.P.I. might be a robot you teach to wash and fold your laundry exactly the way you like it, or a piece of software you
train to respond to your emails.
Jennifer's intelligent doorbell was equipped with U.P.I., so as I
pressed its sleek, glowing
button, it quipped back at me in an all too
Jenny-like sardonic tone, "Wait.”