Amazon leads as one of the most popular and widely-used companies. Amazon Prime and other subsections of the business have done very well with the general public.
Another factor working in Amazon’s favor is the speed at which it manages to get goods delivered to the general public.
The company is known to get goods rapidly on people’s doorsteps, often ahead of schedule.
However, Amazon appears to be stepping up its game in regards to its artificial intelligence Alexa program. According to Fox Business, Alexa could very well soon be able to imitate the voices of people’s loved ones who have since passed away.
New Changes Coming to Alexa
This past Wednesday, Amazon publicized its intention to increase the empathy of humans by having Alexa imitate voices of its consumers’ dead loved ones.
Amazon believes this is going to have a positive impact, allowing people to hold onto their memories of folks they love who aren’t alive anymore.
Amazon has demoed a new experimental feature for its AI assistant Alexa, which allows the device to mimic the voice of a deceased relative đ”đŒ pic.twitter.com/LVctmZwZPZ
— GameSpot (@GameSpot) June 25, 2022
On top of this, the popular company said pain from lives lost during COVID can be alleviated by people getting to hear voices of their late loved ones, even if those voices are coming from an Alexa machine.
At this time, the feature has yet to be accessible via Alexa.
Nevertheless, it is something that Amazon’s working to make happen. Text-to-speech technological advancements will ultimately be the path pursued in order to get these voices emitting from Alexa.
Backlash Against the Decision
Clearly, Amazon believes this new Alexa feature will have positive impacts on society at large. Nonetheless, there have been some reservations about this update from the general public.
Social media users have opined it’s actually “creepy” to have the voices of dead individuals coming from an artificial intelligence machine.
Others believe what Amazon’s going to do will ultimately make it harder for people to work through the grieving process after losing someone they love.
The FUCK you will.
Remember when we told you deepfakes would increase the mistrust, alienation, & epistemic crisis already underway in this culture? Yeah that. That times a LOT.
"Amazon has a plan to make Alexa mimic anyone's voice [w/o their consent]"https://t.co/kXm4EXKgp8
— Dr. Damien P. Williams, MA, MSc, PhD, Patternist (@Wolven) June 22, 2022
Likewise, there is potential for confusion to come about, especially for kids who may end up hearing the voices of a deceased relative and thinking that person is still alive.
If Amazon actually goes through with rolling out this feature, only time will tell whether or not it succeeds or ultimately flops.
Some people will definitely be eager to integrate this into their lives; whereas others, judging from their public comments, are going to steer clear of this new use of artificial intelligence altogether.
Do you think it’s positive or creepy for Amazon to set up Alexa devices to emit the voices of dead people? Is this something you’d be willing to bring into your home and use? Please be sure to let us know what you think about this new change in the comments area.
