I was on a Skype call with someone in California in the morning for me but the middle of the night for him. We both spoke french but all of a sudden, I overheard a female voice speaking english to him. I was wondering why his french wife would speak english to him and even for a brief moment, I had less noble thoughts of a different woman talking to him that late!
Things got even more interesting when I heard him scream « Alexa STOP! ». By then, I had established that his mistress was named Alexa and that they had a less than tranquil relationship!
That thought was short-lived as he proceeded to explain that he was addressing his Amazon Echo that has probably recognized a speech pattern in what he was telling me and felt compelled to answer something!
This struck me as a seminal moment for a new class of annoyances that A.I. will bring to our lives: smarty pants behaviors causing irritations and tension that you cannot release because it’s a DAMN MACHINE!
Since then I’ve been reading that Amazon Echo is selling like hot cakes this holiday season so, shrinks rejoice, you gonna get a lot of business from couples and family members who display frustrated behaviors they can’t put words on. But I’m sure some Startup will figure out an A.I. to help you better diagnose these things 😉