Chit Chat-ing with “Alexa”…
(Also Siri, Jeeves, and your personal A.I.)
I don’t know about you but when I address “Alexa”, I give commands, and that’s it.
Some folks, however, want to have conversations with “her”.
“Why” is the first question that pops into my mind, but better minds than mine are desperate, yes desperate to get Alexa to come along enough in sophistication to hold up “her” end of a convo.
If you own an Amazon device, every so often you’ll get an email that’s says (roughly) check in with Alexa, have “her” tell you a joke, have Alexa tell you what’s on TV tonight.
None of this is a conversation, of course. This is simply dispensing information…but that, in and of itself is still pretty cool. Think back- even only ten years…Could you imagined that you could just shout to the air: “Alexa, What will the weather be like tomorrow?”, and expect an answer?
Again I say: pretty cool.
“We humans are learning to take over our digital lives using our own words and our choice of digital device. We’re also finding that we’re more comfortable than ever before communicating with technological devices through spoken words.” (Venture Beat)
There are literally hundreds of people around the globe working on this problems as I write this and, apparently, Apple, Google, Facebook, and of course Amazon- and quite a few others feel that this is the next frontier in A.I.; they feel that whoever gets there first will have the “high ground” in the coming battle for your eyes, ears, loyalty, oh yes, and your monthly payments.
According to guys who study this sort of thing, we have reached a sort of “tipping point” “and heading toward mass acceptance”. We all talk to the GPS when it’s wrong or Waze when we have to navigate an unfamiliar traffic situation, so what if the device actually talked back? I mean, almost half the country have used Virtual Assistants. We can use those devices to order from DoorDash etc in seconds… without consulting your phone to make a call nor (yikes- what year are we in anyway?!)- the yellow pages!
These assistants can read your email to you if you wish…Wouldn’t it be nice to have the 3D printer make you a nice Pina Colada and relax on the couch while “Alexa” read you all your emails?
Maybe.
Well, ok…probably.
And what if you didn’t speak…say, Croatian. These same ‘bots might translate –in real time- what the other person is saying. That would certainly be a benefit for anyone who works in almost any field overseas!
And, coming soon! An A.I. who might understand your intent. Even if you speak colloquially, it should understand…It might even understand sarcasm and humor. Now that would be something!
I remember working on a high budget low voltage install job years ago, and there was a tight area in which two Hispanic guys were already working. My boss had directed me to finish in that room but there was clearly no room for me!
I told them:” I’ll come back later, guys. This is a one –butt kitchen.”
They both looked around to visually tell me that that they were well aware that this was no cocina, and that I just said was (at best) confusing to them. Humor is always the last thing to translate in a new language.
This is why an understanding of nuance in A.I. is so interesting.
Apparently there really are people who would like to have Alexa converse with them, and if “Star Trek” devotees et al are to be believed, this is coming…soon!
And I’m led to believe not only superannuated shut ins want this (for reference go to Youtube and find the hilarious SNL fake commercials for “Alexa” types of devices), but professors and six and seven million figures per year sorts of people believe that this will be the Next. Big. Thing.
Interesting world we’re living in…right?
They believe that we will get used to talking with Siri, et al, as easily as we might talk with someone we just ran into at the grocery store or the poodle groomers shop; they believe that we will know, but not care that we are talking to a machine after a while.
Personally, I don’t know about that. The people on star Trek always knew that they were talking to a computer…I mean, they said “Computer, calculate our chances for survival?”
“2.897 %”
“Damn, that’s low…On the other hand, I’m the star. They can’t kill me off! Scotty, reroute power from the shields and give me maximum power!”
Though come to think of it, crew members on Star Trek, et al seldom conversed with their A.I.
Tell me again, why is it they think that “I” want to?
