Voice Activation Technologies
By: Cami Zilka
History & Core Components
Voice activation technologies, such as Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Home, have taken the world by storm with increasing use in many American as well as international households. Amazon Alexa, and most other smart speakers, can do all of the following: create reminders, create alarms, add events to the calendar, add items to your to-do list or shopping list, get traffic for commute to work, weather update, stream music, and so many other tasks just by the sound of your voice (Johnson, 2017). Apple’s Siri was introduced in 2011 and was built in order to become a digital assistant for iPhone 4S which was the newest version of iPhone at the time (Siri: Assistant timeline, history, and features). On the other hand, Google’s voice activation goes by the name of Google Assistant and was released in 2016 (Forrest, 2019). Later on, in 2017, Google Assistant’s support for iPhone was introduced and, in 2019, new feature and improvements were announced (Forrest, 2019). Google Assistant was soon attached Google Home, a Google smart speaker which became publicly available on November 4, 2016 (Forrest, 2019).
However, in November of 2014, Amazon announced their original smart speaker called Amazon Echo which became a rival for both Apple and Google (Kim, 2016). Dave Limp, Amazon executive first pitched the idea that would soon become Echo in 2011, he had a lot of doubt. He stated, “This is going to be hard…It foretold a magical experience. But it would require a lot of inventions” (Kim, 2016). The original plan of the Echo involved creating a smart, voice-controlled that could potentially play music, read the news, and order groceries from anywhere in the house (Kim, 2016). Nevertheless, in the production process of the Echo there was one major concern. That concern was the idea that it took Alexa, the name of the voice assistant Echo, to respond to any request (Kim, 2016). At the time, voice-recognition technology responsive time was at around 2.5 to 3 seconds, so the Echo team working on the smart speaker had a goal of 2 seconds (Kim, 2016). But Jeff Bezos had another time in mind: one second (Kim, 2016). Isn’t that crazy?
Ry Crist, Senior Editor for CNET, expresses how Alexa Echo works its magic: “Here’s how that works: Whenever you ask Alexa a question or give her a command, the Echo records the audio and uploads the snippet to Amazon’s cloud servers. Those servers translate the audio into text, then figure out the best way for Alexa to answer. That info gets sent back to your Echo speaker, where Alexa translates the text back into a spoken response. All of this happens in about a second” (2018).
In an article written by Synced, more specifically the journalist, Tony Peng, he addresses what goes into the creation of the voice within smart speakers. Peng states within his article that Dr. Junling Hu, the founder and CEO of Question.ai and chair of the AI Frontiers, introduces the six key components in building a smart virtual assistant. They include: “speech recognition, speech synthesis, natural language understanding, a dialogue system, a chatbot, and a music recommendation system” (Peng, 2017). Researchers over the years have had issues with figuring out the right voice for the smart speakers (Peng, 2017). A smart speaker must be able to detect and translate human voices into a format that can be read by computers which is known as speech recognition (Peng, 2017). Many smart speakers are awakened by two-step method identified as Anchored Smart Detection which can be shown below (Peng, 2017).
Also, a step that is between speech recognition and speech synthesis is natural language understanding (NLU) which enables the smart speakers to have reading comprehension (Peng, 2017). Then comes the dialogue system which involves the virtual assistant to “detect users’ intentions, and decide how to respond (Peng, 2017). The final two key parts of a smart speaker are chatbot and recommendation. Peng highlights, “A chatbot that is human-like in both text and voice is the key to smooth human-machine interaction…Music recommendation, one of the other central skills of today’s smart speakers, acts as a sort of personalized radio station by leveraging the enormous amount of data with machine learning training to play the most favorable songs for users” (2017).
The last thing that is important to note about smart speakers is that over the years many different generations and versions of each smart speakers has been released. The smart speaker world has been expanding throughout the years and continues to expand today.
Diffusion
As long as the voice activation technologies (Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Home) have been around, their diffusion and adoption has rapidly increased throughout the years. However, in the years after the creation of Amazon’s Alexa, the use of Siri has decreased (Perez, 2017). The graph provided below shows that the use of Alexa increases exponentially over a year. In 2017, it was analyzed that there was a “15 percent decline since last year — or 7.3 million monthly users” (Perez, 2017). On the other hand, Amazon Alexa usage skyrocketed “jumping 325 percent in monthly active users — that is 0.8 million to 2.6 million monthly users” (Perez, 2017).
Furthermore, in 2020, most of the big smart speakers’ brands had a rise in their relative markets (Kinsella). In April of this year, new data was released that said that Amazon was still the largest installed base of smart speakers’ users, but it’s substantial lead continues to decline (Kinsella, 2020). According to the data offered below, it shows that after a survey was conveyed “found that Amazon Echo smart speakers commanded a 53% relative market share compared to about 31% for Google Nest Home” (Kinsella, 2020). These results emphasize a strong increase for Google smart speakers with a rise of 24% from January 2019 (Kinsella, 2020).
It is also very important to take into account the users of these voice activation technologies. In an article written by Brooke Auxier, she addresses the demography and findings about smart speakers’ users from 2019. The findings are pretty interesting to look at.
· 25% of Americans have a smart speaker in their home.
· 32% of users are in the 18–29 age range.
· Most smart speakers can be found in suburban households
· Men are a little more likely to have smart speakers than women (25% vs. 24%
(Auxier, 2019)
Since there have been such an increasing growth in the adoption of smart speakers, it is important to examine the projected demands of these technologies in order to view how they will affect the world in upcoming years. In the Voice Report of 2019 by Microsoft, it is emphasized that “75% of households will have at least one smart speaker by 2020” (Olson & Kemery, 2019). However, a different study states that “by 2022, it’s [smart speakers adoption rate] expected to more than double to 55%” (Routley, 2019). Competition between the different smart speaker’s brand continue to become an issue as adoption rate continues to skyrocket.
The following graph is from Visual Capitalist:
(The Voice Report 2019 has a bunch of great graphs and data as well. Too much good data to choose from! I highly recommend!)
Societal Effects
The following chart is an example of a tetrad analysis of voice activation technologies such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Home which are the main smart speakers mentioned throughout this article. This tetrad analysis can work for families that use these technologies as well as local communities. The Tetrad Analysis involves these three questions:
1. What does the technology enlarge or enhance?
2. What does the technology retrieve from previously obsolesced technologies?
3. What does the technology erode or make obsolete?
4. What does the technology reverse or flip into if pushed to an extreme?
Enhances:
The use of smart speakers has the ability to enhance one’s ability to complete tasks. Users of Smart Speakers have the ability to utilize the smart speakers’ database and ask the speaker to remind them to do a certain task or add a task to their do-to list. This can make it a little more enjoyable to complete tasks within a given day. Additionally, smart speakers are useful in order to enhance cognitive abilities. It is so easy to have a conversation with a smart speaker and ask them questions that you may not know and get an answer right away without having to take out a mobile device and look it up yourself. This can help someone learn something new. Also, it is also possible to ask the smart speaker to add a certain product to your shopping list and the smart speaker has the ability to purchase the product right away.
Retrieves:
These technologies allow for a bunch of ways of retrieval. It retrieves the experience of many previous voice activation technologies. Smart speakers usually do not involve a screen like Siri and Google Assistant, so smart speakers are different in that aspect. For Amazon, Apple, and Google, these smart speakers allow the buyers to give these brands use out of their websites and gives them further profit into their businesses.
Obsolesces:
The use of smart speakers can cause a lot of erosion in one’s life and can impact the lives of its users potentially more negatively than positively. The use of these voice activation technologies gives its users less human interaction with others and can limit the amount of physical movement when users use these technologies. Also, these certain technologies also limit the use for phones. When users ask the smart speaker to do a certain task, there is no need to take out the users’ phones and do the task through their mobile device.
Reverses:
Voice activation technologies have many impacts on the reverse portion of the tetrad analysis. The way that the smart speaker may answer one’s question could have an impact on the users’ ability to communicate with others after using the technology. For example, if the speaker answers a question, it could have an impact on the users next human interaction. Also, the use of these technologies time and time again could cause an impact on one’s movement throughout the day. If one decides to use their smart speaker constantly for easy tasks like shopping it could have an impairment on the movement of the user.
There are many societal benefits of smart speakers as addressed by Cathy Pearl in her article titled, “The Societal Benefits of Smart Speakers” (2018). Pearl highlights that many articles about smart speakers constantly talk about the negative impact on society, while there are many positive impacts of it as well (Pearl, 2018). Pearl states “In their own small ways, these voice-enabled assistants are bringing people together, making people more independent, and even getting us to look up from our phones” (2018). A matter of fact, NPR/ Edison Research did a study and discovered that a majority of people are using their smart speakers with others. These activities may entail listening to music together, answering questions, and playing games (Pearl, 2018).
Additionally, smart speakers have given many people independence and those with visual impairment, physical disabilities, memory loss, and seniors who are not tech-savvy have also benefitted from the use of these devices (Pearl, 2018). Lastly, Pearl highlights that these technologies can cause companionship those who find themselves lonely and without anyone to talk with (2018). To further highlight the idea of independency, the use of these systems “may offer people increased autonomy in their homes” (Woods, 2018). It is stated by Heather Woods that “smart home systems can assist people with physical or cognitive impairments by automating crucial activities and services” (2018).
However, there are also many negative societal effects with the use of smart speakers especially when it comes to children. Although the use of smart speakers can get a child’s attention away from a screen, it can also impact the way that the child grows up (D’Onfro, 2018). The way that the child speaks to the device and the device not correcting their grammar, may impact the way they talk to others in the future (D’Onfro, 2018). Also, “while smart home technologies can offer feelings of comfort and security for some users, there may also be security risks associated with an always-on microphone” (Woods, 2018).
Furthermore, the main theory that best describes how we experience this part of the world differently due to the use or adoption of this technology is the media dependency theory. This theory addresses the relationship between resources use and goal attainment. The use of smart speakers, such as Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and google Home can provide its users with kind of relationship. With these smart speakers it is possible to ask them to set a timer or alarm, add a task to a to-do list, add an event to your calendar, go shopping, call others, and any other task you would like to ask it to do. Amazon Alexa, especially, can be used at times to turn on the lights with a specific Amazon plug or even asked to turn on the television with us having to get up to do the task ourselves. Smart speakers can help achieve any goal it is capable of doing that we would like to get done.
Forecasted Effects / Recommendations
After examining the effects of smart speakers on the society, it is important to understand how to use those effects to our advantage. If the use of smart speaker allows us to be more in the moment and not glued to our phones as much as we are today then the use of smart speakers is not all that bad. It is evident that the use of smart speakers throughout the nation and even the world will continue to increase as time goes on. Smart speakers can make life much easier and we need to look at how it can make our lives more efficient, but also make sure that we do use it for everything like turn on the lights. We must understand how these devices have impacted our society for the better. However, we must keep into account the negative reasons to own a smart speaker and remember to also continue human interactions and continue to move our bodies on a daily basis.
Using a smart speaker can be very enjoyable and can make daily life easier as previously mentioned, but we should continue to stick to a healthy lifestyle and not depend on technology. I recommend that if someone would choose to adopt a smart speaker whether it be an Amazon Alexa, or Google Home, to not forget the negative effects it could entail for one’s life and not depend on it for every daily task. It is always good to have a balance on what you chose to use.
Lastly, while living on earth as a child of God, it is important to remember that “Technology, like humans, may be fallen, but I believe that it has a role to play in God’s kingdom, and therefore God intends the redemption of technology.” (Funk, p.9). This is a quote by Ken Funk that has stuck me since I have read his article titled “Thinking Critically and Christianly About Technology”. This shows that God wanted these technological devices, especially smart speakers in this instance, in our lives and that they had meaning to our lives.
Final thoughts: Live life to the fullest. Be in the moment.
References
Auxier, B. (2019, November 21). 5 things to know about Americans and their smart speakers. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/21/5-things-to-know-about-americans-and-their-smart-speakers/.
Crist, R. (2018, September 21). Everything you need to know about the Amazon Echo. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/how-to/amazon-echo-alexa-everything-you-need-to-know/.
D’Onfro, J. (2018, January 14). As Apple gets slammed for addictive smartphones, experts are optimistic about the Amazon Echo and Google Home. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/14/effect-of-smart-assistants-like-amazon-echo-google-home-on-kids.html.
Forrest, C. (2019, October 15). Google Assistant: A cheat sheet. TechRepublic. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-assistant-the-smart-persons-guide/.
Johnson, K. (2018, August 21). 10 things your new Alexa-powered smart speaker can do. VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/26/10-things-alexa-smart-speaker-can-do/.
Kim, E. (2016, April 2). The inside story of how Amazon created Echo, the next billion-dollar business no one saw coming. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-inside-story-of-how-amazon-created-echo-2016-4.
Kinsella, B. (2020, April 28). Amazon Smart Speaker Market Share Falls to 53% in 2019 with Google The Biggest Beneficiary Rising to 31%, Sonos Also Moves Up. Voicebot.ai. https://voicebot.ai/2020/04/28/amazon-smart-speaker-market-share-falls-to-53-in-2019-with-google-the-biggest-beneficiary-rising-to-31-sonos-also-moves-up/.
Olson, C., & Kemery, K. (2019). Voice Report 2019. Microsoft.
Pearl, C. (2018, April 2). The Societal Benefits of Smart Speakers. Medium. https://medium.com/vui-magazine/the-societal-benefits-of-smart-speakers-274073cfe7ae.
Peng, T. (2017, October 31). Inside the Voice Inside Your Smart Speaker. Medium. https://medium.com/syncedreview/inside-the-voice-inside-your-smart-speaker-e8eabb679740.
Perez, S. (2017, July 11). Siri usage and engagement dropped since last year, as Alexa and Cortana grew. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/11/siri-usage-and-engagement-dropped-since-last-year-as-alexa-and-cortana-grew/.
Routley, N. (2019, April 10). The Fight for Smart Speaker Market Share. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/smart-speaker-market-share-fight/.
Siri: Assistant timeline, history, and features. Apple Insider. https://appleinsider.com/inside/siri.
Woods, H. (2018, July 16). Are smart assistants good for users? An honest look at the pros and cons. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90202770/are-smart-assistants-good-for-users-weighing-the-pros-and-cons?fbclid=IwAR1-GrBVs6EaBzdCs0Hr6ryrlyDBJcIfEbbsl6eCwXLPkoZNNG4VN4niAg8.
