Voice First Devices to Bully

Recently, in a Simpsons episode, the Google Home was featured as a stand in for hazing pledges. They were relentless in commanding the pledges to drink more.

This got me thinking… are there scenarios where voice-first device might be used for bullying? Or, are they a technology that is more resilient to being turned into a tool of abuse?

My feeling is that it’s the latter. The nature of voice is that it slows down the communication so that it can be understood. The result is that hashtags and acronyms lose their meanings. For the abuser, this allows for a sober second thought. For the abused, it means they can pause or stop the taunt before it stings.

On the same path, maybe natural language analysis will help alert bullies of their behaviour so that they can modify it?