Meet The Next Major Operating System: Amazon's Alexa (zdnet.com)

ZDNet's editor-in-chief warns that Amazon has ambitious plans for its new Echo Plus: Amazon is making an explicit play to be the home hub because it can automatically discover and set up lights, locks, plugs, and switches without the need for additional hubs or apps. And the Alexa 'routines' feature will be able to tie all of this together by allowing you to automate a series of actions with a single voice command: saying "Alexa, good night," and having it turn off the lights, lock the door, and turn off the TV, for example. A platform that other apps and devices can connect into? This starts to sound a lot like an operating system for the home to me.

It's not just the home, either; Amazon announced a deal to make Alexa available in BMW and Mini vehicles from the middle of next year, allowing drivers to use the digital assistant to get directions, play music or control smart home devices while travelling, without having to use a separate app. Travellers will also have access to Alexa skills from third-party developers like Starbucks, allowing them to order their coffee while driving and thus skip the line. Back in January, Amazon and Ford said they were working together to allow voice commands to turn on the engine, lock or unlock the doors as well as play music and use other skills...

It's still early days but I think Alexa has a good shot at becoming one of the standard interfaces, certainly for consumers -- an operating system for the home, if not more, if the automotive tie-ups take off too. All of this will make Amazon a serious force to be reckoned with. Windows has the desktop, and Android and iOS can fight it out for the smartphone, but right now Alexa has a lock on the smart home.

Comments

AMZN had *better* emphasize security

[sehlat]

1. Add the ability to recognize a specific voice that is authorized to issue commands. (No more South Park incidents. Period.)

2. Make sure that things like lights, door locks, etc. ALL have manual overrides. This capability will need to be certified, which will give Amazon a lot of control over which companies/devices will work with the system. OTOH, from a security standpoint, if you don't want your home broken into, you'd better have that sort of reassurance built-in.

Unless the OS security, both internal and external isn't a LOT better than what we're getting from the Internet of Crap, this will be another disaster.

Re:AMZN had *better* emphasize security

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless the OS security, both internal and external isn't a LOT better than what we're getting from the Internet of Crap, this will be another disaster.

Maybe that's exactly what needs to happen. Thankfully it won't affect anyone with a clue. The rest get to (re)learn a valuable lesson about blind trust and their addiction to convenience.

Re:AMZN had *better* emphasize security

[geekmux]

Unless the OS security, both internal and external isn't a LOT better than what we're getting from the Internet of Crap, this will be another disaster.

The Internet of Crap consumer has purchased an always-on listening device buried deep inside the most personal spaces of their life. What in the FUCK makes you think that kind of consumer gives a shit about emphasizing security when privacy was dismissed long ago?

Oh, and "manual override"? That would assume the consumer A) knows how, or B) wants to learn. The entire point of automating the shit out of every little thing is so they don't have to bother with manual anything anymore.

Re:AMZN had *better* emphasize security

[msauve]

"The Internet of Crap consumer has purchased an always-on listening device buried deep inside the most personal spaces of their life. What in the FUCK makes you think that kind of consumer gives a shit about emphasizing security when privacy was dismissed long ago?"

Oh, I think they "give a shit." But, the typical consumer doesn't understand either the privacy or the security implications. They can't "dismiss" something they don't understan. They just naively assume that nothing happens other than it listens and reacts to the single sentence beginning with "Alexa" (or Siri, or Hey Google, or ...).

That there's more is buried deep in legal terms no one reads.

The recognition of that naivete in your second point should be reflected in the first.

I'll buy in

[rtkluttz]

When and only when this shit is completely autonomous with no need for internet access. I won't have my shit spying on me and I won't ask an external entity to control shit in my own home. I'll drill my own hole in my own firewall and control my devices directly with no 3rd party intervention.

Interesting story

[Kohath]

This is quite the story. But I actually have an Amazon Echo. It turns off my lights ok, but I can’t find much else for it to do.

I’m not super interested in hearing poorly-curated music played out of a small speaker. News is occasionally semi-interesting at best.

And Alexa doesn’t do much of anything unless you use the app and go find “skills” for it. The capabilities of the skills are disappointing.

Does anyone have any stories about Alexa doing useful things? True stories only, not made up stuff about what it might do someday.

Re:Interesting story

[DontBeAMoran]

I have a story about Alexa doing something useful.

The other day I was comparing items on Amazon and I saw a link to Alexa. I clicked on it, decided that even if Amazon were to pay me to send me one for free I wouldn't want a spy in my house. So really, Alexa saved me from wasting USD$99 on a spying device.

Really?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

So does "operating system" now mean absolutely whatever the author of some tedious think piece wants it to?

Re:Really?

[ColdWetDog]

No, it really should only apply to Emacs.

YeahNO!

[Chas]

I like my tech gadgets and everything.

But I'll be damned if I'm going to wire my home up to spy on me and send all the data back to Amazon, Google or WHOEVER.

I don't give a shit HOW useful it is. It's simply TOO intrusive for my liking.

And if I ever move into a place with this crap pre-installed, I'll have an electrician out first to disconnect it all.

Alexa - unlock the door for the pizza delivery

[Alain Williams]

I'm sorry Dave, I cannot do that; the pizza was not ordered from Amazon.

Proprietary software means insecurity.

[jbn-o]

So long as any part of this depends on non-free (proprietary, user subjugating) software, insecurity is to be assumed because untrustworthiness is guaranteed. Manual overrides on proprietary software are an illusion built to placate those who don't think through the process thoroughly.

It's also worth recognizing that this is entirely unnecessary. People have been quite fine to turn on/off their own house lights, lock/unlock their own door locks (without handing out keys to others such as an unknowable and indeterminably large set of people who want free access without making it look like they broke in), and so on without automation. Principled technologists know when it's a better option to say no to automation and remote control, this is most obviously the correct reaction in the face of a system the user has no permission to fully and exclusively control.

There's no way of "securing" door locks, for instance, with software one doesn't control and fully have the freedom to own. When dealing with a system a proprietor can augment or replace at any time, manual overrides mean nothing.

Re:Proprietary software means insecurity.

[sehlat]

Yes. cf. Cory Doctorow: Demon-Haunted World

I think the above article should be mandatory reading.

And then the Four Horsemen began their ride

[laurencetux]

Now placing bets on how long before this deploys that

1 there will be a MASSIVE hack of the system due to folks being framed for multiple felonies driven by voice commands

2 Amazon Employees are found to have a stash of "exciting" media grabbed via different devices

3 somebody gets arrested due to something that was saved by one of these devices

4 a few people get KILLED using one of these devices (example an Amazon controlled car decides to shut the engine down while the car is cruising down the Highway at 20 above the posted speed limit)

Insurance

[bankman]

It's going to be great once insurance providers decline payments after break-ins and other mishaps that can be directly related to "smart" devices. And I am afraid that this is the only way, this kind of stupidity can be stopped. Consumers won't realise the madness they're engaging with until it hits their wallets and vendors will never understand the customer's security requirements until they are forced to pay for it, either directly or through lost sales.