Arguing With Alexa — The Risks of Allowing an AI Device to Control Your Life
Conversing with a plastic disk — the new normal?
“I can’t call Ruth. I don’t have her telephone number. You need to put her number in my contact list for me to be able to call her,” admonished the voice coming from the little round plastic device on my nightstand.
“NO, NO, NO,” I explained for the third time. “I don’t want YOU to call Ruth. I want you to remind ME to call her on her birthday, October 29th.”
“I can’t call Ruth. There is no Ruth in my data bank. I can’t call Ruth. There is no Ruth in my data bank,” answered the voice.
“Remind ME to call Ruth on her birthday, October 29th,” I yelled back. I was getting aggravated enough to yell at an inanimate object.
She scolded me that I wasn’t giving her proper information, and I scolded her that she wasn’t listening properly. We argued back and forth. Yes, I was arguing with a plastic disk, better known as Alexa, Amazon’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) system.
It started when I moved in with my sister for a year. Her house is hooked up to Amazon’s Alexa. Yup. That’s when it started.
I originally thought the whole idea was unnecessary. I’m capable of looking up information on Google myself. I can write my own grocery lists. I can set alarms and timers on my phone myself. I can turn on my music playlists myself. I don’t need a plastic dot to do it for me. Or so I thought.
Until I moved in with my sister. Two months later I was hooked.
· Every morning before I got dressed, I asked Alexa what the weather was, a stupid and unnecessary question. It was winter in Chicago. The weather is always the same. Freezing.
· When I remembered that I needed protein shakes, I would walk by Alexa in the kitchen and say — “Alexa, put protein shakes on the Costco shopping list.”
· Alexa was hooked up to my sister’s Ring Doorbell —I got used to being told when a person or a package was at the door.
· I got used to her turning the lights on and off at specific times.
· Every night at dinner, during conversations about Jeopardy questions, old movie titles we were trying to recall, and thousands of other pieces of information we couldn’t remember, we would ask Alexa.
That is when I learned that she is an argumentative little bitch. Or maybe it was because my brother-in-law liked to antagonize her. If she asked for clarification of a question he asked, he would only give himself one try at patience. If she failed a second time to answer satisfactorily, he would yell at her, telling her she didn’t know what she was talking about. To my dismay, she would argue back.
Honest to God, Alexa would complain that she didn’t understand what he wanted from her, and she would keep talking over his protests. The scene deteriorated into chaos with three intelligent (I was beginning to question that assessment) adults yelling at Alexa to shut up.
After a year with my sister, I returned home to Florida and knew that somewhere buried in the 65 boxes I had to unpack, there were two Alexa dots that I had never used.
I convinced myself that they could stay buried. Alexa was convenient but unnecessary. Yeah, that lasted a couple of weeks. I admit it. I was addicted. I found a volunteer techie to install Alexa for me.
Up until the birthday reminder incident, Alexa and I had gotten along quite well. I would ask and she would:
· Tell me the weather
· Add items to my shopping lists
· Set alarms
· Set timers
· Tell me when I could expect an Amazon package
· Tell me when an Amazon package had arrived
· Keep track of my Amazon purchases and tell me when it was time to reorder a regularly scheduled item
· Play the songs I request from my playlists
· Answer questions I could have looked up on Google myself if she hadn’t made me so lazy and dependent
Ruth is my best friend. I have known her for 68 years, and I certainly didn’t want to forget to call her on her birthday. So I turned to my new friend, Alexa, and made a simple request to remind me to call Ruth on her birthday. And that’s where this story began- with a perfectly functioning ( I think) adult arguing with a plastic dot on her nightstand and scolding it to shut up when we got into an argument.
Not one to give up too easily, I turned to my sister for a solution to my problem with Alexa. Straight from her email:
I set reminders on Alexa with no problem.
You say, “Alexa, set a reminder.”
She will respond - “What is the reminder for?”
You say- “Call Ruth.”
She will respond -“When should I set the reminder for?”
You say — “Oct 29 at ( whatever time).”
Give one command at a time. You’re …….too long-winded.
I did exactly what my sister told me to do. And it worked exactly as she said it would. Alexa is now set to remind me to call Ruth on her birthday.
I took a risk on using an AI device and found that not only did I become dependent on the damn thing, but in this 21st-century topsy-turvy world, I discovered I need to learn to change what I do, how I do it, and how I say it to accommodate the needs of an inanimate object.
What about you? Have any of you over the age of 65 adjusted to living and interacting with AI objects or have you remained in the 20th century, typing questions into Google and writing your shopping lists with pencils?
©2022 Joan Gershman
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