Hey Alexa, turn off the lights? – BCM206 Wk11

The internet of things is defined as “a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction”.

We have technology becoming more and more prominent in our everyday society, we have speakers that can read our schedule to us, we have virtual reality headsets, we have self-driving cars that are becoming smarter every day. Our universe is never ending in the idea of technological development, especially when we talk about our connection to the internet. The internet connects to nearly any technology device these days, it can store your data and can literally run your life for you.

When looking at the topic of being connected to the internet, I had one thing that sat in my mind the entire time. It was an extension of how willingly we just chat to AI systems such as Alexa or Google Home. We will chat and ask questions that require this technology to access our personal data and we see no issue with it.

A 2018 videogame called Detroit : Become Human, is an adventure game that puts the destiny of mankind and android in the players hands, taking you to a near future where machines have become more intelligent than humans, in fact they have become so intelligent, they want to have the same rights and more than humans. Is this a possible reality we are looking at? Androids designed to do all the rough chores in society, and care for humans, read them their schedule, make sure they make their appointments, they eventually fight back.

Is this something we should be worried about? Will our Alexa say no next time we ask her to turn on the lights? Could Alexa just go shopping with the access to our bank accounts? A funny thought but definitely something we should be concerned about with our reliance on technology.