First there was SIRI, and now there's SARA

[Gary7]

SARA (Socially Aware Robot Assistant) was featured at the 2017 World Economic Forum. SARA is an Articulab project through Carnegie Mellon University [LINK].

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You'd think at this point they'd get the syllable emphasis and spacing a little better. But it's pretty fascinating to see the dynamic user assessment program at work.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

As long as it's not as dumb as Alexa which answers my question about how much protein an average egg contains with the calorific value of an average egg. Google responds with the right answer straight away as it doesn't use a crap backend search engine like Bing.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Google responds with the right answer straight away as it doesn't use a crap backend search engine like Bing.

Well, I for one am glad that Google doesn't use Bing as a back end.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Alexa is ok, mostly, for controlling smart devices. Google Home is way, way better for information queries. As you say, just as one might expect.

I don't need either to be socially aware or they might judge me to be too sweary and inpatient.

 

[Gary7]

In a way these "virtual robots" will be good for humanity, as they could eventually reach a point of being able to coach people and monitor them to help prevent their doing stupid things. "I am detecting natural gas. Please check the stove immediately to be sure all knobs are turned to the OFF position." As person starts heading out the door, Alexa calls out "the forecast calls for a 90% chance of rain and I see you haven't taken your umbrella. I strongly recommend you take it with you!"

Of course, you have to draw a line somewhere. "I see you are self-pleasuring and do not have any tissues nearby. You may want to grab the box in the living room that is still 50% full."

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

In a way these "virtual robots" will be good for humanity, as they could eventually reach a point of being able to coach people and monitor them to help prevent their doing stupid things. "I am detecting natural gas. Please check the stove immediately to be sure all knobs are turned to the OFF position." As person starts heading out the door, Alexa calls out "the forecast calls for a 90% chance of rain and I see you haven't taken your umbrella. I strongly recommend you take it with you!"

My echo spot won't do that as I put a piece of opaque tape over the camera lens as well as disbling the camera in settings. I don't like the idea of Amazon potentially spying on ne.

 

[Gary7]

My echo spot won't do that as I put a piece of opaque tape over the camera lens as well as disbling the camera in settings. I don't like the idea of Amazon potentially spying on ne.

They should design devices like Echo with a very distinct protocol of not allowing any video feed uploads. Any video recording would be done locally and only for the day, with cache dumped at the start of the next day. If it's open whereby anything the camera could record would end up on Amazon servers... that is HUGELY disturbing. On laptops, there is a white LED that is hardwired into the camera, so when video is being captured the light must be on. Circuit wise, it's impossible for the camera to operate and the LED to be disabled.

If someone wants to enable remote viewing of their home using Echo, there should be a camera attachment you plug into it and that could be uploaded ONLY to your account, not at all visible by Amazon.

 

[Santaman]

Siri, Alexa, Sara, Skynet...

 

[Deks]

Yeah... doesn't seem that 'realistic' though... or at least, not as this:

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