Roar writer Scarlett envisions the societal change that might come from investments and development of Amazon’s Alexa technology.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, its deadly infections and unprecedented transmission rate, spiralling around the globe, people envisioned a devastated international community on the verge of emotional and economic breakdown.
It is a global health crisis that triggered the world to stagger at a point of stagnated growth and development. However, despite the enormous changes and that has resulted from the pandemic, there’s one specific area that towers prominently above all else.
Technology – the utmost aspect of the modern experience and a necessary piece of the fast-growing society we live in. One can’t deny that technology serves a significant role, in not just combatting the virus, but as the foundation in processing online communications and bringing out innovative business models for companies worldwide. While the globe is suffering from an extensive economic recession, technology is setting its foot on an optimistic pathway to creating more high-tech products and services that could completely subvert the lives of millions. It would be an understatement to say that technology is merely a subsidiary tool for leisure and entertainment usage.
After undergoing an unstoppable pandemic that has strained almost all of the energy and strength out of people’s bodies, the novel presence of technology surprisingly becomes the primary topic of attention for societies worldwide. Like a shimmering ray of light in the deep dark, its potential to restructure the way people interact and deal with daily needs at a global scale is unimaginable.
Among the numerous forms of new technologies in place, AI integrated technology is gaining ground as the most anticipated to be in common societal use. Amazon’s Alexa is a notable example of AI technology is being implemented to corresponding devices to achieve complete voice control over daily tasks.
The first Alexa-enabled device, Alexa Echo, is a voice-controlled AI virtual assistant that is able to perform tasks customised in a way that meets the user’s personal preferences. Similar to Apple’s Siri, both display capabilities to answer questions ranging from daily weathers, real-time information, music, sports, and transportation through its massive, innately equipped database. What makes Alexa outstandingly different is the development of a smart home automation system that enables people to establish an AI knitted housing environment through the exclusive use of a single Alexa app.
Since Amazon produced its first assistant with an AI engine, it has been making huge and wide-ranging investments in companies specialised in different technological domains. From an advanced investment in voice control technology in collaboration with Jargon, Ecobee, and Scout Alarm, to the enhancement of its question-answering ability with Wolfram Language, the scale of investment in performing various skills is growing rapidly. It was recorded that Amazon has topped 90,000 different functions for users of Alexa-enabled devices to download. And all these skills can be installed on Alexa’s companion app and further performed.
Apart from the diverse set of features available for users who have an Alexa enabled device, the Smart-Home automation engine is the exact function that people are looking for if they aspire to have a smart house.
The setup process is rather easy. All users have to do is to download the Alexa app and purchase a series of smart home products, such as LED light bulbs, thermostat, smart plugs, security cameras, and TV operating system on Amazon. As one installs the devices into the app, a smart home engine will be connected deliberately to each of the products. As a result, a complete AI automated system will be successfully planted within each corner of the house. Whether one would like to implement the tasks through voice control or prefer regulating in-house automation using the app, they’re all easily accessible thanks to the omnipotent Alexa.
Technology doesn’t seem to stop its development, even when the world is reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, one could say that the effects of this brutal disease incentivised the development of new technologies, especially as humans enter a 5G digital era primarily consisting of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and cloud technology.
With the advanced speed of growth that Amazon is leaning towards with its virtual assistant, there’s a high possibility that Alexa would replace the presence of hand-sized smartphones and become a dominant technology among society. When voice-controlled technology is introduced thoroughly to the community and has been developed to an extent where people could do just anything with a flicker of their mind, it poses a question of whether this phenomenon means a reformative change in the way people live, work and communicate.
Nevertheless, regardless of how people’s lives are to be tied to technology in the near future, we could all acknowledge and appreciate the fact that even in the midst of humanity’s greatest depression, technology stood as a sense of hope for global societies to survive and thrive in a different way. It is undoubtedly one of the key factors that spark people’s interests in reshaping the world and envision a positive future ahead of us.
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