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Saturday 4 March 2017

does alexa dream of electric sheep?

I heard a strange story today about Amazon's new talking home avatar butler called Alexa. 


A kid ordered a doll and some cookies via Alexa, who [which?] has the ability to order stuff online [a bewildering thought in itself] and the story hit the TV news.

Whilst on the news the kid's voice must have been repeated telling Alexa to order a doll and some cookies. 

Now the unbelievable bit. Many other Alexas in other homes heard this and went on to order dolls and cookies too! 

I don't know if this is true [please don't let it be fake news] but it reminds me of the trope of IT going sentient in so many sci-fi stories and films. Just think of Cyberdine Systems in Terminator - and we all know where that lead! - 

and what about the classic ending of Lawnmower Man, where the digitised Jobe goes sentient and makes all the world's landlines ring at once.

I suppose I can't ignore Wargames either where WHOPPER orders nuclear strikes everywhere. Maybe WHOPPER started by ordering dolls and cookies! 

Does anyone have an Amazon Alexa unit [which maybe called Echo] ?
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4 comments:

  1. WOTAN3/05/2017 4:27 pm

    Its a gimmick, I think. I had an electronic assistant on my Orange mobile phone back in 2004 called 'Wildfire'. Voice recognition has moved on considerably since then, but its by no means infallible. I struggle with predictive text, so certainly wouldn't bother with something like Echo. Having said that, computer hacking or 'phreaking' started out on an audio basis, as someone figured out how to simulate the sonic access tones used by US government by simply blowing through tissue paper and a comb! So its quite understandeable that a child could subvert Amazons voracious order system!

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    Replies
    1. WOODSY3/05/2017 6:30 pm

      Just wait till Alexa starts talking to Siri when she's bored!

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  2. WOTAN3/05/2017 6:32 pm

    and brings Cortana round for a girls night in!

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