Skip to content

Futurist Friday: Siri on Steroids?

Category: Center for the Future of Museums Blog

Yesterday Amazon launched Echo, a digital assistant that sounds a lot like a female version of Hal (from 2001: A Space Odyssey). Or better, Majel Barrett channeling the brain of the starship Enterprise. 

“Far-field voice recognition” enables Echo to listen for your queries (triggered by a wake-up word) from a distance. Here’s a demo video:

Skip over related stories to continue reading article

For some reason I went in primed to snark, but I am actually intrigued by the prospect of using Echo while cooking (elbows deep in raw ingredients not being the best time to make notes or look things up). True, Amazon’s motivation seems to be to provide you with an ever present personal shopping assistant, but that doesn’t mean that Echo won’t be co-opted into other roles. 

As technology gets better at understanding natural language queries, and at interfacing with the world (to make appointments for us, place orders, adjust our physical environment) “assistants” like Echo will proliferate in a variety of forms.  A program like Echo may, in time,  follow you everywhere–embedded in your environment. 

Is there any downside to having a discreet, always-on, internet connected digital Gal Friday at our beck and call? Will (s)he be just one more device that makes our lives easier and more efficient, or one more digital intrusion into our privacy and self-sufficiency? Or both?

Your Futurist Friday assignment: make a list of what you would ask Echo to do, or answer

  • in your home
  • at your workplace

And what is gained, or lost, by off-loading those tasks to a digital assistant.

And if you wouldn’t use Echo even if someone gave her to you, why not?






AAM Member-Only Content

AAM Members get exclusive access to premium digital content including:

  • Featured articles from Museum magazine
  • Access to more than 1,500 resource listings from the Resource Center
  • Tools, reports, and templates for equipping your work in museums
Log In

We're Sorry

Your current membership level does not allow you to access this content.

Upgrade Your Membership

Comments

1 Comment

  1. I want to see something like this incorporated into museum collection management software, and make it a part of online public discovery options. šŸ™‚ (if dreaming, dream big, eh!)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Field Notes!

Packed with stories and insights for museum people, Field Notes is delivered to your inbox every Monday. Once you've completed the form below, confirm your subscription in the email sent to you.

If you are a current AAM member, please sign-up using the email address associated with your account.

Are you a museum professional?

Are you a current AAM member?

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription, and please add communications@aam-us.org to your safe sender list.