We are social animals. We interact with devices and anthropormorphize them…after all, it’s not a big step since we name birds, cats and dogs and act towards them as if in some way they can understand and converse us. I suppose it all stems from the same need not to be alone.
Anyway, clever people note this and devise the Siris, Cortanas and now, Alexa. Yes, you have the choice of addressing the ‘Echo’ as 'Alexa' or 'Amazon'. 'Hal' or 'Skynet' would have been a lot cooler. The "Big Idea" behind it? Separate the ‘voice’ from the phone.
So, what’s the Echo? And what’s with the Barbie reference in the title?
The Echo is a nine inch tall black metal cylindrical computer that can sit pretty much anywhere in your home. It’s a voice command device which plays music and controls other devices.
So, obviously something that size can’t do that by itself and have a very sexy voice to answer you, so how does it work? By Cloud processing.
"Your recorded commands are collected for study by Amazon, for the purposes of improving Echo’s recognition skills. Amazon says that these recordings are not anonymous, and they’re not deleted unless you delete them. You can delete these recordings yourself, either one at a time or all at once (but that “may degrade your experience using Amazon Echo”)." – David Pogue
Echo listens to everything…not just “Play ‘We Will Rock You’”. The only way it doesn’t collect everything said is if you click the “stop listening” button (and believe it really does). Unlike one’s significant other, it also has a “stop speaking” button. The device listens to everything but supposedly only pays attention when you prefix your question/statement with ‘Alexa’ or ‘Amazon’. God help you if your significant other was blessed/cursed with the name Alexa.
“The Echo doesn’t understand you every time. If you ask something beyond its limited circle of commands, you get either a beep or a “Sorry, I can’t find the answer to the question I heard”-type message. And sometimes it mis-hears you completely. (That situation crops up most often when you’re ordering a certain song or band to play).” – ibid
Yeah, the tech is great…but you know what? Until you make a self contained unit which won’t broadcast my stuff to the Cloud, just hold on to it…because I ain’t buying it.
You see, besides all the personal stuff one says, and all the times you say your credit card number, etc. aloud at home (over the phone) or ask your significant other, “honey, what’s your password?” after being asked to buy something/fix something, etc., it seriously creeps me out that Mattel/Amazon and/or anyone else is a not-so-silent partner in my life, and I have to pay for it...besides being their data commodity.
Don't kid yourselves. These devices are data collectors...and these companies should be paying you for what you give to them while you "make your life more convenient" using their devices.
Source:
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/amazons-echo-brings-the-star-trek-computer-to-124102850474.html