When the first Amazon Echo smart speaker came out, it was fascinating and fun. I confess, I didn’t jump on the automotive train at launch, but once I saw how I could play with my dogs by having Alexa make cat noises, I was hooked. Now, two years since our first purchase, I have smart plugs all over the house and routines for lights pre-programmed. We recently stayed at an AirBnB and my senses were assaulted because I couldn’t get snuggled under the covers and have Alexa turn off the light. I had forgotten how many stubbed toes happened from the light to the bed. This interesting topic came to us from The Scholarly Kitchen in their article, “A Review of Amazon’s Alexa — From 1988.”
Beyond convenience, has the artificial intelligence (AI) smart speaker or as some refer to it, big brother, brought any real value to our lives or to science?
If you’re planning on turning your house into a smart home, smart speakers are the perfect foundation for your smart house control system. However, if you aren’t very invested and bringing lots of smart technology into your home, they could be a waste of money.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
