Speaking with an AI bot can be amusing and even helpful – if it understands you. How well AIs do that is a matter of whose speech they’ve been trained on.
Articles on Digital assistants
Displaying all articles
It’s difficult to see how artificial intelligence systems work, and to see whose interests they work for. Regulation could make AI more trustworthy. Until then, user beware.
Small design decisions by big tech companies can play a role in directing our attention.
Digital assistants have been defaulted to having female voices because of how developers and coders view women’s labour.
Virtual assistants and robots are frequently given female attributes. To curb the massive use of such gendering in AI, we need to better understand the deep roots of this phenomenon.
Leading tech companies are increasingly using AI to influence our behaviour. But how persuasive do we find virtual assistants?
When hosting a dinner party, are you obliged to let your guests know that you own a smart device like Amazon Echo or Google Home? The answer is yes, according to a privacy researcher.
The first thing to know is that Siri is not a “who” – Siri is a “what”.
There are mounting calls to dismember the likes of Google, Apple and Amazon, but most people seem to have overlooked the biggest threat of all.
When an African grey parrot named Rocco made purchases via his owner’s Amazon Alexa voice assistant, it raised questions about who was legally responsible for footing the bill.
It probably won’t surprise you that if you ask Alexa to give you the best price on a product, the assistant will usually offer the price that’s available on Amazon.
Reports of the death of accents have been greatly exaggerated.
There are several reasons people might find smart devices equipped with an always-on microphone both attractive and unsettling.
Apple’s closed system may be its undoing in the smart home market.
Once you have the ability to speak to a digital assistant from any room in the house, the obvious next step is to make the house able to listen.
This will be the year when the Internet of Things becomes intelligent – and useful.
Top contributors
-
Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Technology, Kansas State University
-
Senior Research Associate in Media and Communications, University of Sydney
-
Professor & Director, Hub for Apple Platform Innovation (HAPI), School of Computing Technologies, RMIT University
-
Professor of Strategy and Organisation, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
-
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Manchester Metropolitan University
-
Senior Lecturer of Human Computer Interaction, Department of Computing, Sheffield Hallam University
-
Senior Lecturer in Law, Adelaide University
-
Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; University of Toronto
-
Workday Professor of Technology and Society, Trinity College Dublin
-
Principal Lecturer, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brighton
-
Lecturer, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney
-
Professeure en Marketing éthique, TBS Education
-
Lecturer in Computer Science/Co-founder Women Leading in AI, Keele University
-
Head of Anticipatory Action and Innovation, Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), United Nations University
-
Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University