#Alexa hal 9000 voice free#

There are many ways of building human connection to machines, and Alexa reflects many of them. Instead, it indicates that it’s focused on building millions of training databases composed of data gleaned from single individuals or very small user groups.Granted, Alexa’s shade-throwing is really that of the team of programmers that built her. Once Alexa stops listening for commands and starts making suggestions, it means Amazon‘s no longer focused on building a handful of giant training databases comprised of data from hundreds of millions of users. Simply put: Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are all trillion dollar companies because data is the most valuable resource in the world, and Alexa is among the world’s greatest data collectors. But Alexa‘s primary mission will always be to gather data.

#Alexa hal 9000 voice free#

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.īut the next time you use it, you might find yourself in a three-minute-long argument over whether you wanted to listen to music by Cher or purchase a beige chair (with free two-day shipping).įrom a consumer point-of-view, it’s hard to imagine Alexa becoming so useful that we’d come running when it summons us. Virtual assistants, today, are equal parts miraculously intuitive and frustratingly limited. 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. But, for now, the work Prasad and the Alexa team are doing isn’t scary on its own merit. The idea of Alexa being an omnipresent companion looking to orchestrate your life should probably alarm you. This will require Alexa to get to know you better than ever before.

The idea is to turn Alexa into an omnipresent companion that actively shapes and orchestrates your life.

Rather than wait for and respond to requests, Alexa will anticipate what the user might want. The crux of the plan is for the voice assistant to move from passive to proactive interactions. Speaking with MIT Technology Review, Rohit Prasad, Alexa’s head scientist, has now revealed further details about where Alexa is headed next. And, to paraphrase Kanye West, no one person or company should have all that power. But he and the company he works for probably have access to more of our data than ten Facebooks and Twitters combined. That’s not to say Prasad is a bad actor or anything but a talented scientist. 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. 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. It’ll interpret our data, make decisions for us, and summon us when it has something to say. One day, perhaps sooner than you think, Alexa will take a proactive role in directing our lives. Alexa’s AI will be tailored to mold your actions, consumption and relationships. ⁃ TN EditorĪmazon has big plans for its virtual assistant. Amazon is set to leapfrog Facebook’s dystopia and go directly to personal control just think Hal in the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey.