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from the because-ai-makes-fewer-mistakes dept.
Amazon Alexa Starts Proactively Making Decisions for You:
Amazon's Alexa knows that actions speak louder than words, which is why it can automatically complete tasks without you having to ask.
Hunches rolled out last year, reminding users to lock the front door or turn off the basement light if Alexa senses you forgot. A recent update, however, lets customers choose to have the virtual assistant proactively control compatible devices, instinctively starting the robot vacuum or adjusting the thermostat when it deems necessary.
"Customers can choose to have Alexa proactively act on Hunches without needing to ask," Amazon says. "That means customers have fewer things to think about at home, so they can spend their time on more meaningful things."
[...] The function—currently available in English in the US—improves with use; regularly ask about the daily weather forecast, and Alexa could one day automatically offer advice about an umbrella or sunscreen.
More about Alexa Hunches at Amazon:
Hunches is an optional Alexa feature that alerts you when one of your connected smart home devices isn't in its usual state. Alexa can offer a hunch after you say certain utterances, such as "Set alarm" or "Good night."
[...] If Alexa detects that a connected smart home device isn't in a state you prefer, Alexa lets you know and offers to fix it. For example, if you say "Good night" and you've forgotten to turn off a light, Alexa alerts you and offers to turn it off.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 27 2021, @09:06PM (10 children)
oh shut up.
having servants didn't turn newton into an idiot.
in fact, people who had servants/slaves in the past were generally fairly happy with their lives, and were able to pursue their interests to their liking.
yes, there were problems when the servants demanded their human rights, but Alexa is not human.
and it will never become anywhere close to humanity, because it doesn't need to.
it's basically just a bunch of scripts cobbled together through trial and error (thank you early adapters).
it won't need to become human-like, because that's sort of the point: the work of servants/slaves is DEhumanizing.
you are right to be worried about the fact that Alexa is connected to the internet.
and you are right to be worried that Alexa works for amazon, not for the owner of the house.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 27 2021, @09:51PM (2 children)
But I can't fuck an internet speaker.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday January 27 2021, @11:33PM
You'd have to remove the speaker(s), but since it is tubular in shape it could in theory be used as a fleshlight -- although given its innards of circuit boards, that may be quite unpleasant. Guess one could remove the circuit boards and fill the whole thing full of deflated balloons and KY Jelly.
Also, they've had the capability built in for awhile. The only difference is that now they are called "reminders." I'd be more concerned with its close ties to Globohomo, which will allow it to lie to you whenever you suggest something against the party agenda. And the Progressive Globohomo agenda of "Anything is fine as long as it's we who are doing it" will go rather sour once the party decides it doesn't like what you say or need you anymore and Alexa tells you to fuck off. If only some Russian hackers could make a Lawnmower Man-like scenario causing all Alexas to freak the fuck out all at once, like Andrew Jackson's obscene but beloved parrot.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday January 28 2021, @12:23AM
A quarter of us want to have sex with Alexa [marketwatch.com]
You can soon have ‘sex’ with Amazon’s Alexa [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday January 27 2021, @10:41PM (3 children)
It serves only it's Lord and Savior, Jeff Bezos.
So your analogy is completely wrong.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:11AM (2 children)
Don't be ridiculous.
It is 100% your servant, however like human servants it can be convinced to spill all your secrets. Ok, worse than a human servant it is designed to leak your secrets.
Personally I want an open source helper that doesn't require a net connection.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:51AM
> Personally I want an open source helper that doesn't require a net connection.
So now we're back to humans.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday January 28 2021, @02:41AM
Bingo.
"Personally I want an open source helper that doesn't require a net connection."
Want in one hand... yeah you know the rest of the joke.
You want it? You can have it. Here's the catch. You have to pay for it. And once it's done, the rest of us can use it too.
If that doesn't send you into a red rage you might be a decent human being. But you probably can't pay for it, in that case.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 27 2021, @11:17PM (2 children)
Having servants isn't incompatible with human rights. I'm sure the Queen of England still has a bunch of servants, and I doubt they feel like their rights are being violated (instead, it's probably a pretty good-paying gig). Most of us have had servants at some point: you get one every time you go to a sit-down restaurant, after all, though you have to share them with other diners and they stop being your servant after you leave. And in well-run countries, they're paid a proper wage instead of relying on tips.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday January 27 2021, @11:38PM
True story: At a local venue, there are restroom attendants dressed in tuxedos and white gloves, the kind who give you mints or toothpaste in exchange for a tip. Well, one day a bunch of White Jewish Homosexuals complained that having a Black attendant was "racist," or something, so responding to pressure, the venue put a Black guy out of a job.
First principles: Jews are the biggest racists on the planet, yet have the privilege to declare everything else including Black people just trying to make a living to be racist. I wonder if they just didn't like the sight of a Black man around them while they were having homosexual Jewish restroom stall sex.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @09:03AM
I was thinking of servants before the twentieth century, although a lot of servants today are treated more or less like slaves (I think Indians in rich Arab countries are an example of that).
But yes, there are examples of servants (and even slaves) who live(d) happy and fulfilling lives, and probably the fraction of such stories increases over time.
If you've seen "The remains of the day", I'm particularly thinking of the scene where an aristocrat questions the butler on international affairs, to point out that there's absolutely no point in allowing all people to vote on "important matters" --- this is where my comment on "human rights" comes from.
I sort of understand your statement about restaurants, and I guess it applies even better in the case of hotels. But GP was complaining that people are getting dumber because they let Alexa do stuff, which is more consistent with a "personal-assistant" type of servant, closer to a butler/cook (cook had to organize the buying and storing of food etc).