World domination was embedded in our developing brains growing as an actual threat to mankind. But no, it will not be Dr. Doofenshmirtz or Extraterrestrials- it’s something that resides right in our home. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not new to our generation. We see it on a day to day basis and have developed a real relationship with it. (Not that kind of relationship but let’s be real, Karen and Plankton were #relationshipgoals). This is an ever-changing idea, that will only get more impressive as time goes on.

Hey Siri, Introduce the Next Paragraph

Our iPhones, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are all examples of Artificial Intelligence that most people have or have used to help them complete a task. The tasks could simple, for example “Hey siri, call Mom” or “Alexa, play Despacito” and on their own they are able to do this task by using an algorithm of sorts to go through your phone or amazon account in order to complete task hands free. Artificial intelligence is initially supposed to make our lives easier and maybe for now it does, but will it always be that way?

Alexa, play I Knew You Were Trouble

The problem with technology having a mind of its own is it does not always have to do only what it is told- especially in its developing stages. Over the years we have heard multiple cases of Alexa listening in to people’s conversations. By listening to these conversation, she was then storing data and could have it possibly sent out. This was brought to my attention in recent article by Jason Voiovich, where he tells us how Alexa “Your Alexa-enabled device sends those recordings to an Amazon data center, where they not only use natural language processing algorithms to decode your speech and complete your request, but they also store those files in a centralized database for future use”. HOW SCARY IS THAT?

Of course Alexa isn’t the only villain. For years people have been saying that they think their iPhone is listening to them. Have you ever been talking about something and then later that day you see an ad for it on Facebook? If Alexa is always listening, who’s to say Siri and Google aren’t either? These products keep showing up. In the near future, everything will be hands free and listening to us. SO far we even have hands free cars, These devices with accumulate all information they need to know in order to control us. In a blog post about AI, writer Adam Mertz stresses the idea that with all of the information that these devices are soaking in, they will be able to know our languages and behaviors and be able to market new products and ideas to us. By knowing exactly how to market to us they can manipulate us to think we need it. This will control our buying habits and could control how we perceive certain new and information.

Hey Google, Wrap It Up

Is world domination something to worry about now? No! Is it more realistic more than ever? Sure! It is great to make life a little easier for humans by only having to command someone, or something to do a task for you. However, I think it’s important to dig deeper into the ways on artificial intelligence so that things like Amazon’s Alexa or Siri do not record and withhold almost all of your private conversations. Hopefully, they can find a way to control that and have the voice controls be more helpful than harmful in the future.