Alexa may soon have eyes as well as ears

Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant, has already sparked controversy amid concerns the gadget is listening in to conversations, and secretly harvesting data from its users.

But the creator of the smart device has hinted that it may also soon be opening its eyes and even walking around the house.

Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s head scientist, told the Daily Telegraph that Alexa could gain sensory capabilities to enhance the machine’s understanding of the world.

“As an AI researcher, intelligence and sensing go hand in hand,” he said. “It’s not just about spoken language, it’s about contextual reasoning.

“That’s how I think of it: what other knowledge sources can you bring to make the reasoning more powerful?

“If you think about our own intelligence, without eyes we can only do a limited set of things . . . But I wouldn’t speculate on whether Alexa needs arms and legs and eyes.”

Prasad said he wanted Alexa to become an active companion, which intuitively understands its owner’s needs and encourages new behaviour, rather than serving as a passive assistant.

Since Amazon launched the device in 2014, it has sold more than 100 million of its Echo and Dot gadgets and Alexa can already control more than 85,000 smart-home products.

Yet in April, the company provoked anger after admitting staff were listening to the voice recordings from Echo users to improve performance.

In another case, a device recorded a private conversation between a woman and her husband and sent the recording to an employee of her husband.

Prasad said Amazon was working to ensure that users felt their information was safe. “If you are uncomfortable, you say ‘Alexa, delete everything I said today’.”

But Prasad admitted there was a need for a consideration of ethics as AI becomes increasingly embedded in our lives.