"Amazon’s roadmap for Alexa is scarier than anything Facebook or Twitter is doing"
From TheNextWeb:
Amazon has big plans for its virtual assistant. One day, perhaps
sooner than you think, Alexa will take a proactive role in directing our
lives. It’ll interpret our data, make decisions for us, and summon us when it has something to say.
Rohit Prasad, the scientist in charge of Alexa‘s development, recently gave MIT Technology Review’s Karen Hao one of the most terrifying interviews
in modern journalism. We know how dangerous it is to let bad actors run
amok with AI and our data – if you need a refresher, recall the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
That’s not to say Prasad is a bad actor or anything but a talented
scientist. But he and the company he works for probably have access to
more of our data than ten Facebooks and Twitters combined. And, to
paraphrase Kanye West, no one person or company should have all that
power.
Hao writes:
Speaking with MIT Technology Review, Rohit Prasad,
Alexa’s head scientist, has now revealed further details about where
Alexa is headed next. The crux of the plan is for the voice assistant to
move from passive to proactive interactions. Rather than wait for and
respond to requests, Alexa will anticipate what the user might want. The
idea is to turn Alexa into an omnipresent companion that actively
shapes and orchestrates your life. This will require Alexa to get to
know you better than ever before.
The idea of Alexa being an omnipresent companion looking to orchestrate your life should probably alarm you. But, for now, the work Prasad and the Alexa team are doing isn’t scary on its own merit.
If you’re one of the eight or nine people on the planet who has
never interacted with Alexa, you’re both missing out and not really
missing out. Virtual assistants, today, are equal parts miraculously
intuitive and frustratingly limited.
With one interaction, you’ll say “Alexa, play some music” and
the assistant will ‘randomly’ select a playlist that touches the depths
of your soul, as if it knew better than you did what you needed to hear....
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MUCH MORE
