Latest / Mark and Pete / Amazon Echo - Smarter or More Irritating?

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Amazon Echo - Smarter or More Irritating? · Mark and Pete

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  Amazon Echo Smarter or more irritating?
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete, where we're looking at how AI may be
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  getting more of a foothold into your homes.
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  This is Mark and Pete, 2 blokes with half an opinion.
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  Now here's our first thought. The echo of irritation when
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  smart technology talks back and becomes extremely chatty as it
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  responses get harder to track, it'll drive you abundantly
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  Batty. Oh yes.
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  The very idea of technology talking back, well, some people
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  like the idea. It can offer many, many good
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  insights to knowledge, but at the same time, if it's getting
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  smarter, it can talk you down. Mr. Pete, I wonder what you
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  think about the idea of Amazon's Echoes becoming even smarter.
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  And this of course is due to AI powered upgrade.
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  So what say you about this new technology innovation?
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  Well, it's interesting with such innovations where that seems
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  such a good idea in the 1st place and they get more
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  irritating. I guess lots of AI interfaces
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  are like that and computer interfaces that little helpers
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  used to have, for example, in in Word and other programs on your
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  computer to start with seem cheeky and amusing little paper
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  clip if you remember and then then got then got more
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  irritating. So it's making making however AI
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  responses in this smart speaker. It reminds me of a character in
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  Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where in this satire of
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  science fiction they had robots who had genuine people
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  personalities. And the the one that is Greeks
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  are heroes has real issues with his personality and is almost
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  suicidally depressed the whole time.
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  So as soon as you introduce something human from the point
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  of view of of computing, or in this case AI, which you know
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  wasn't around when that a parody was written, you introduce all
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  the difficulties of. Humans.
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  Into something that you thought had stopped that interaction.
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  So you've brought back in all the issues that you know that
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  were there from human interaction and put it into in
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  this case your smart, your smart speaker.
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  So I'm not sure it's a good idea.
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  Well, the Alexa Plus turns the digital assistant into a more
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  chatty device. So that's the idea.
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  So effectively, the idea is being more proactive in its
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  responses. Now, there has been criticism of
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  the Echo in the sense that when it was first launched, yes,
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  there was uncertainty. Yes, there were technical
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  issues, OK, the technology has become more advanced and more
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  reliable. But what a lot of users are
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  really saying is, is that they expect this to be a little bit
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  more polarising. Effectively they want to have a
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  more relaxed and enjoying the the conversation rather than
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  it's something that could be more disconcerting or irritable.
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  And I suppose it really it comes back to the consumer.
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  What does the consumer want? Because at the end of the day,
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  as you say, the more personality you bring into a device, it
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  could be that the device could be quite exuberant, quite
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  lively, or to your other point, which it could be quite
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  depressing. And it could, it could seem that
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  actually even a bright sunny day could seem like a dismal
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  washout. But I think that if you were to
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  buy one, if you were to buy, I don't know whether you've got
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  one, but if you're thinking of buying one, well, how would you
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  want your personality to come through this device?
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  What sort of person would you want it to be?
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  Well, I'd like someone obviously like yourself, Mark.
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  So. Well, of course.
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  You know, it's slightly acerbic sarcastic comments, but possibly
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  more knowledgeable than you. If, if that were possible,
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  surely not I, I, I wouldn't want a sort of bland personality.
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  It's interesting. You should, you should ask that
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  because there's already a move to have AI produce, you know,
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  fake friends or or girlfriends or boyfriends for people so who
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  will answer questions and talk as though they're real.
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  If you've got a smart speaker in your room as though they're
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  afraid you come home for work and the smart speaker says, so
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  how was your day? You end up talking.
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  You sudden. You suddenly removed the need
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  for real friends. Well, there you go.
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  Well, what's interesting is controversial take so well, yes,
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  but here here's here's something else which sort of shows you the
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  the level of interactions. Now Amazon claims that 52% of
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  the UK has tried the Echo head and there have been 114 billion
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  interactions. And that's just Mr. Pete saying,
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  no, that's not what I want. That's basically since 2023.
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  Now, of course, that's a lot of interactions, billions of
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  interactions that are going on on an hour by hour, day by day,
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  week by week basis. Now I will say though, that
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  what's interesting here is the other side to this, which is the
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  cost. Now an Alexa Plus can come in at
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  just under £20. Yes, £19.99 a month, Yeah, a
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  month, yes. Or or be free for those with an
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  Amazon Prime account. Now when you think about this
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  though, Mr. P, we do tend to sort of think about the the, you
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  know, we like the idea of technology enhancing our daily
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  lives, our household environments.
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  But there is that other side to it is taking it on the serial
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  side that you could end up spending an awful lot of money
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  on something that maybe you could get just by browsing the
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  Internet or just reading a book. What do you think?
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  Yes, I think, Mr. Mark that this the the use of AI and the use of
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  the use of technology of of different sorts.
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  You know, search engines on ebooks, all these different
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  replacements for things like chatting with friends, talking
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  with your husband and wife, reading a reading a real book,
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  going out to see a play, enjoying some live music.
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  To me they don't seem like improvements.
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  They seem like a flattening out and making bland of real
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  interactions and real life. Well, yes, well, here we go.
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  So, listeners, what do you think about this technology
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  innovation? But more importantly, if you've
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  got an Alexa, why not ask it? What do you think of the Mark
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  and Pete podcast show?