AMAZON ECHO SEEMS A PRETTY HARMLESS DEVICE PERFORMING BASIC VOICE BASED FUNCTIONS. BUT ITS AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT IN AMAZON'S GRAND PLAN TO BECOME A GLOBAL BEHEMOTH. PRESENTING TO YOU, PART 1 OF THE AMAZON SERIES.
Before I dive right in as to how Amazon can sway our future, I would like to make it clear that 60% of work in THIS series is based on a podcast series named "Land of the Giants" so if you want a long 300-minute podcast on this matter, tune in. I have also done my independent research and added my own insights as well so let's move on, shall we?
In this series, I will explore how Amazon can be disruptive as well as an intrusive monopoly of the future which can control all aspects of our life. After all, Amazon is not just an online shopping mall, it's a tech giant with tons of subsidiary companies.
WHY ALEXA CAN BE A TOOL FOR FUTURE CONTROL
1. ALEXA LISTENS TO OUR CONVERSATIONS.
I am aware of the mute feature of Echo but that merely impacts the ability of Alexa to respond. Amazon can hear what you & the people around are talking about. It can predict whether you are happy, angry or sad. It can also accurately judge the dimensions of the room, the speaker's position and even the material of the walls! It sound outlandish but its absolutely true. Now, this can help Amazon in increasing its sales.
If you are talking about buying a new table, it can suggest that the next time you log in.
If you are expecting a baby, it can offer diaper and baby care essentials.
If you are angry frequently, it can even suggest buying an anger management book!
2. ALEXA IS THE CORE TO AMAZON'S SMART HOME FUTURE.
Amazon envisions a smart home for its consumers where trivial tasks like switching lights off & providing weather update alongside accomplishing more complex ones like house surveillance and temperature control. In the USA, Amazon is compatible with at least 6000 different smart devices. Now, this is not an issue as it makes our lives easier. The issue is the data that Amazon will get. For instance, Amazon knows your sleeping schedule through Echo. So it knows when to send you notifications. To learn about more ways as to how this data can be exploited, CLICK HERE.
3. ALEXA HUNCHES.
In 2018, the company announced Alexa Hunches, a new feature that the voice assistant will predict your future needs. It uses deep neural networks to understand our behaviour. For example, if we say Good Night & the front door is open, it informs the user of the same. Now this solidifies my previous assertions that Amazon does have the technology and algorithm to analyse our behaviour & suggest changes.
4. COMPANY ACQUISITIONS
I studied the acquisitions made by Amazon in recent years & the following companies showed a pattern:
Yap Cloud (speech recognition system)
Ring Inc (Home security & smart security)
Blink Home (Home automation)
Zoox (self-driving car)
Sqrrl (Data analytics)
The pattern is that all these companies focus on automation & analysis- 2 key ingredients to the smart home future.
FUN FACT (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ZOOM) {source pintrest}
5. SMART APPLIANCES
The next piece to this puzzle is a smart appliance. Amazon built a "voice-controlled microwave" which seems good doesn't it? BUT it can also have a look at what food you like, what you cook the most, the ingredients you use the most & can make suggestions based on that for you to purchase. In the future, it can make smart TVs (influencing the content you watch), smart washing machine (finding your fashion preferences) and get tons of data. Scary isn't it?
The main aim of this series is not to portray a dystopian future with Bezos as Big Brother. Rather, it is to open the consumer's eyes to the infinite ways by which Amazon can impact our lives
STAY TUNED.