Alexa, will I ever get used to having you?
Our daughter Katie introduced a new dynamic into our home over Christmas. My wife Mary and I now share a spot on one of our kitchen counters with “Alexa.”
Alexa is Amazon’s virtual assistant, a counter-top version of the Apple iPhone’s “Siri.”
An unexpected gift — one we would have never thought of purchasing for ourselves — we had a lot of fun setting it up on Christmas Eve. Once I got it hooked up to my Amazon Prime account and downloaded the app, it was fun to start asking questions.
Since that night, Alexa, Mary and I have been slowly getting to know each other. It would be fair to call the relationship a work in progress. We have a small version — the Amazon Echo Dot. You can ask it questions, such as “what is the weather forecast for Sunbury today?” The quickness of the responses is impressive.
Alexa doesn’t know everything. With full knowledge of the answer, a friend asked her the other night “Where is Christy Mathewson buried?” The reply? “I’m sorry. I don’t know that one.”
Come on Alexa. The Hall of Fame pitcher and Bucknell Hall of Famer is buried at the Lewisburg Cemetery. I’ve only lived here a little over two years and I know that.
Alexa will play the music of your choosing — assuming you are hooked up to music sites like Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, etc.
The other night at a New Year’s Eve party, one of the guests asked Alexa to play polka music. I personally considered the quick response a mixed blessing.
Here’s how this works, according to the website Digital Trends.
“When you ask Alexa question, what you’re really doing is communicating with a cloud-based service. Amazon has designed the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to mimic real conversations, but you’re actually using intuitive voice commands to get this service to perform specific tasks.”
Alexa is not so much a name as it is what is known as a “wake word,” that alerts the service to start listening to your voice. I have tried so far to resist referring to Alexa as “she” or “her,” but it’s a losing battle. For years, I’ve called the female voice on my GPS system “she.” It’s probably too late to turn back now.
Asking Alexa questions is not yet second nature. Days go by without any communication. I hope she isn’t feeling ignored.
I did figure out how to set up my personalized sports update, so I can ask Alexa for the scores of games I care about. You can also get news updates from CNN, The Washington Post, Reuters and other sources.
Who knows? This might eventually become an essential appliance.
I remember a time when carrying around a mobile phone seemed like far-fetched Star Trek stuff. By the way, Alexa will also tell you a joke if you ask her. Alexa, tell me a joke. “What do you call a fake noodle?” “An impasta.” Alexa, tell me another joke. “Why did the banker quit his job?” “He lost interest.” She’ll be here all night, folks.
This oped first appeared in The Daily Item (Sunbury, Pa.). Email comments to editor Dennis Lyons at dlyons@dailyitem.com.