After a decade of free Alexa, Amazon now wants you to pay; The Washington Post, August 27, 2024

Shira Ovide , The Washington Post; After a decade of free Alexa, Amazon now wants you to pay

"There was a lot of optimism in the 2010s that digital assistants like Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant would become a dominant way we interact with technology, and become as life-changing as smartphones have been.

Those predictions were mostly wrong. The digital assistants were dumber than the companies claimed, and it’s often annoying to speak commands rather than type on a keyboard or tap on a touch screen...

If you’re thinking there’s no chance you’d pay for an AI Alexa, you should see how many people subscribe to OpenAI’s ChatGPT...

The mania over AI is giving companies a new selling point to upcharge you. It’s now in your hands whether the promised features are worth it, or if you can’t stomach any more subscriptions."

Meta in Talks to Use Voices of Judi Dench, Awkwafina and Others for A.I.; The New York Times, August 2, 2024

Mike Isaac and Nicole Sperling , The New York Times; Meta in Talks to Use Voices of Judi Dench, Awkwafina and Others for A.I.

"Meta is in discussions with Awkwafina, Judi Dench and other actors and influencers for the right to incorporate their voices into a digital assistant product called MetaAI, according to three people with knowledge of the talks, as the company pushes to build more products that feature artificial intelligence.

Apart from Ms. Dench and Awkwafina, Meta is in talks with the comedian Keegan-Michael Key and other celebrities, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are private. They added that all of Hollywood’s top talent agencies were involved in negotiations with the tech giant."

Considering the Ethics of AI Assistants; Tech Policy Press, July 7, 2024

JUSTIN HENDRIX , Tech Policy Press ; Considering the Ethics of AI Assistants

"Just a couple of weeks before Pichai took the stage, in April, Google DeepMind published a paper that boasts 57 authors, including experts from a range of disciplines from different parts of Google, including DeepMind, Jigsaw, and Google Research, as well as researchers from academic institutions such as Oxford, University College London, Delft University of Technology, University of Edinburgh, and a think tank at Georgetown, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology. The paper speculates about the ethical and societal risks posed by the types of AI assistants Google and other tech firms want to build, which the authors say are “likely to have a profound impact on our individual and collective lives.”"