Talk to me: voice control is taking off, but it’s not taking over yet

"If unexpected packages start showing up at your door, you might want to have a word with one of your smart devices. Earlier this month, a six-year-old in Dallas asked her family’s Amazon Echo smart speaker for a dollhouse. And Alexa, Amazon’s Siri-like artificial assistant, promptly ordered one to their house. A San Diego TV news show picked up the story, and inadvertently repeated it when one of the news anchors commented: “I love the little girl, saying ‘Alexa ordered me a dollhouse’.” Overhearing this, several other Amazon devices in homes across San Diego attempted to buy more dollhouses." Read more

Fraser Alison The Conversation 24 Jan 2017