Not that long ago, the idea of waking up and greeting your AI assistance with a 'good morning' would seem absurd.
But, gadgets like Amazon Echo's Alexa have boomed in popularity over recent years, becoming a staple of the modern household. These small but intelligent devices can help owners set timers, keep an eye on the weather, and even to play games. If Black Mirror existed in the 80s - this would be it.
Despite their usefulness, experts have advised users to keep their digital assistants downstairs. They argue that Alexa should be treated like any other guest - and not invited into the bedroom.
Dr Hannah Fry, a mathematician and expert on tech company algorithms, says there is a ‘creep’ of allowing gadgets to invade our privacy, as reported by the Daily Mail.
The associate professor at University College London said: "I think there are some spaces in your home, like the bedroom and bathroom, which should remain completely private. This technology is activated by a trigger word but it keeps recording for a short period afterwards.
Feckless dad asks Alexa to look after daughter, five, while he goes to pub
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"People accept that, but we should all spend more time thinking about what it means for us." After Dr Hannah Fry asked tech firms to provide the data they had collected on her, she said she found recordings of conversations taken from within her home.
She claims that 'very senior' people in the tech industry won't even take a smartphone into their bedroom and buyers should be very wary of low price technology with microphones linked to the internet. Back in 2019, Amazon admitted staff listen to customers’ conversations through Alexa, stating the recordings were used to help improve the Echo device's understanding of human speech.
Speaking to the Mirror, an Amazon spokesperson said: "Echo devices are designed to record audio only after the device detects your chosen wake word (Alexa, Amazon, Echo, Ziggy or Computer). You will always know when Alexa is sending your request to the cloud because a blue light indicator will appear on your Echo device.
"We manually review only a small fraction of one percent of Alexa requests to help improve Alexa. Access to these review tools is only granted to a limited number of employees who require them to improve the service. Our review process does not associate voice recordings with any customer identifiable information."
The spokesperson added that users can opt-out of having voice recordings included 'in the fraction of one percent of voice recordings that get reviewed'.
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