TECHNOLOGY | DIGITAL LIFE
What It’s Like to Live Inside a “Smart Room”
My automated room and me
I bought an Alexa when it went on sale a few years ago, but for its first few months on a shelf, it was just a talking speaker. After the novelty of having a glorified smart radio wore off, though, I grew curious about what smart home capabilities these machines could offer.
Alexa was released in November of 2014 and quickly became the butt of jokes in a world still struggling to accept that speakers could suddenly control houses. Of course, it had no shortage of hiccups in its first few years. From unwanted interactions with late-night TV hosts and unintended purchases made by unsupervised kids to unprompted laughter bouts and all of the other growing pains of an early household AI, it’s clear Alexa and all of its accompanying smart home devices had their share of issues.
Alexa’s privacy concerns are one of its greatest pitfalls. Its always-listening capabilities have given rise to a host of controversies in the years since its unveiling. Whether it’s a good or a bad thing is still open to debate, but Alexa recordings have even assisted in solving crimes.
As of 2023, Amazon has hardly bothered to address the breaches of privacy innate to its broader ecosystem. But sacrificing…
