Friends, friends, friends.
Welcome back to Teatime Reading where there are books in progress.
When I first came across Joseph Turow’s book The Voice Catchers, I set it aside, thinking that it was the sort of conspiratorial book that my parents would love. I assumed that it would be the “my phone heard what I was telling my friend, and I got an ad” type of discussion.
The Voice Catchers is an interesting book because it barely focuses on that theory. Instead, it was a fairly in-depth look at the strategy of companies like Amazon and Google to get people comfortable with smart voice-activated speakers.
I instantly understood the points that this book was trying to make. Even though I grew up with smartphones by middle school and all types of technology through my life, I never really gravitated to voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, or the Google Assistant.
I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t feel natural yet. However, there are millions of people who do use voice to do many of the things that they used to go to their phones for. Turow’s point is that these smart assistants and speakers are a new gold mine for bias, racism, misogyny, and data.
By the end of the book, I thought that I had a little more perspective on the dangers of artificial intelligence in voice biometrics. The inherent bias that seems to be present in AI is also there in voice assistants, and the advertising motive that is in our search engines and social media is also dormant in these voice platforms like Siri, Alexa, or the Google Assistant.
I’ll be keeping a close eye on all of the reassurances by companies, because even though they’ve indicated a reluctance to advertise on their platforms, I couldn’t help but wonder whether that was only because they were still getting us comfortable with communicating with a little puck?
With regulation and guardrails, voice could legitimately be a good and useful tool in our technological future. However, I appreciated Turow’s willingness to explore so many of the dangers that currently exist on those platforms.
Until next time, keep your bookmarks close.
Peace, Love, Pages.
Note: As Always, Affiliate Links are here for your convenience at no cost to you. All reading was at my own expense.