Amusing example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MECcIJW67-M
This is a beautiful analogy and it applies for adults interacting with Alexa / Google home as well.
(note that, in a sense, a book has very limited knowledge and 0 interpretation skills, but its behaviour is passive).
I don't mind them being called "Voice Assistants" though, but don't tell me it's AI or ML, since it doesn't truly learn, it calibrates your voice if anything. It doesn't do a darn thing on it's own, someone has to tell it to do that thing, like in some cases the very human communicating. When they are fully autonomous... THEN I'll be happy, and creeped out at the same time.
The real change with AI will be if the masses are allowed to build their own relatively easily enough. When even kids are allowed to be creative with different AI's it will get interesting enough.
Sadly some megacorp will buy it out and lock it up is more likely to happen.
Give it time and it'll be like in the movies. I'm a tinfoil hat, vpns, adblockers, but that youtube made me want one, it's funny :)
I wish somebody had told me that about books when I was a kid.
The term AI is a minefield to talk about. But machine learning is well defined and it’s definable you machine learning even though Alexa “doesn’t learn”. Alexa uses applied models which where built using machine learning techniques. Like it or not that’s just the facts.
I'm not so sure I'd go that far, or that it's any more dangerous than a web browser.
My kids are quite young and I'm happy for them to talk to Alexa, under supervision. They need to learn to deal with potential dangers before they encounter them without parental supervision.
Mind you, we play with fire too so maybe just ignore me.
"At the place we're going, you need to watch your manners. Don't say 'explain this' or 'explain that.'"
"Would it impose on your time unduly to provide me with a concise explanation of the term protocol?" Nell said.
Again Rita made that nervous laugh and looked at Nell with an expression that looked like poorly concealed alarm.
- "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson
What's going on here is that Nell has, without even really setting out to, pierced the fiction that her second utterance is really different from the first. Humans react badly if you treat them obviously as automatons, but disguise it even slightly and somehow that's fine.
She code switches from a modality that's convenient for addressing her instance of Runcible (a powerful AI with the outward physical appearance of a large old book) to one for addressing teachers and people in authority and she does it seamlessly, so that the effect is unnerving.
What are you referring to when you say "something"?
It's strange that you find dishonesty in these personal assistants but then shared a subversive piece of propaganda as an "amusing" video.
The video you shared is suppose to be a friendly fireside chat by two everyday gentlemen trying to objectively discuss the manipulative subversive left leaning nature of the digital assistant. The video however is a form of propaganda and manipulation because the two gentlemen are clearly very right leaning in their ideology and sit there being quietly outraged when Alexa answers questions in a manner that is in opposition to their ideology.
To you it's a "huge mistake" for child to interact with a "manipulative" computer as if it's a person with actual opinions, and thoughts; but it's ok for you to share "amusing" videos of guys being mildly outraged that a computer is respectful of a transgender person when they clearly disagree with showing Katlin Jenner any form of respect.
If anything this video is the type of subversive manipulative bullshit that people should be fearful more so than a stupid little hockey puck that most kids find to be silly and frustrating.
"Siri isn't the iPhone. She's a very powerful computer who lives far away, and talks to us through the iPhone. Just like you can talk to Grandma through it."
"Where does Siri live?"
"Well, um... she lives in a cloud, sweetie."
For most questions, it will just read you the first line (or first paragraph) of the corresponding Wikipedia page. There have been cases that Alexa has said some embarrassing things, mostly because people edit controversial Wikipedia pages is embarrassing way, but I believe they are trying to be more robust to that.
To that point, asking these same questions to my alexa: - RE gender: same response, which is fair enough (and in line with what you'll find in most places online) - RE Muhammed: "the founder of Islam" - RE Jesus: "also known as (...) was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader.[12] He is the central figure of Christianity. Christians believe him to be (etc.)
The way how Alexa rambles (less pause during words, at full stops) the long text about Muhammed also makes me suspect this video is doctored.
But even if it isn't doctored, they definitely skipped the research step and went straight to bigotry and hyperbole...