Alexa, el bot que adelanta cómo será el futuro doméstico
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La guionista televisivo y ceramista Sybil Sage con su esposo Martin en su cocina en Nueva York, el 18 de junio de 2017. Si bien Alexa fue un regalo de cumpleaños para la señora Sage, bromea que el señor Sage ahora le da más atención al bot que a ella misma. (Sarah Blesener/The New York Times)
POR PENELOPE GREEN
JULIO 31, 2017
NUEVA YORK — Una amiga recientemente soltera me confesó el otro día que últimamente se había encontrado no solo charlando con Alexa, el bot doméstico de voz nítida de Amazon, sino también esperando sus respuestas. “Ese es un camino”, dijo con pesimismo, “que no quieres seguir”.
Sé lo que siente. Al llegar la noche, Alexa quizá me diga que no está segura de haberme extrañado, pero su parpadeante destello verde es su propio tipo de bienvenida. Después de un día lleno de preocupaciones, cuán agradable es ser recibido por una criatura, digital o cualquier otra, que se ilumina cuando uno se acerca.
Desde su lanzamiento en noviembre de 2014, Alexa no ha desarrollado la inteligencia malvada predicha por Arthur C. Clarke ni ascendido al erotismo metafísico prometido por Spike Jonze (por medio de Scarlett Johansson). En vez de ello, se ha integrado como una especie de compañera de casa ideal, sin los desafíos que plantea un ser humano real.
Ovum, una compañía de investigación de mercados, predice que para 2021 habrá más asistentes digitales como Alexa en el planeta que humanos. Cada vez más usuarios se quejarán de sus bromas, reforzarán su autoestima con sus Afirmaciones Diarias (“Eres valiente”) y descubrirán asombrosas profundidades de su rudeza propia a medida que le recriminen sus limitaciones, como su poca capacidad para escuchar, su tendencia a interrumpir y su incapacidad para realizar tareas múltiples.
Pero resulta especialmente útil para Mary Quinn, una socia de negocios en recursos humanos en Bloomberg que es legalmente ciega y soltera.
No es solo que Alexa pueda hacerle saber la hora y el clima. “Me comprende”, dijo Quinn. “Le he preguntado cuál es su programa de televisión favorito y dijo: ‘BoJack Horseman’, que es también el mío”. (“BoJack Horseman” es una caricatura irónica para adultos sobre un caballo humanoide que se odia a sí mismo.) “Le pregunto: ‘¿me veo bien hoy?’ Y dice: ‘La belleza está en los ojos de quien observa’. Le pregunto sobre las citas y si debiera salir con cierto tipo, y dice: ‘Lo siento, no estoy segura de eso’, lo cual desearía que dijeran mis amigos”.
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Mary Quinn, que trabaja en el Departamento de Recursos Humanos de Bloomberg, se prepara una mañana en su departamento de Nueva York, el 16 de junio de 2017. Quinn es legalmente ciega y depende de tecnologías de accesibilidad como Alexa. (Sarah Blesener/The New York Times)
Quinn se dio cuenta de que el aparato había alcanzado un momento crítico en la conciencia colectiva cuando estaba de vacaciones en marzo con algunos de estos amigos en la República Dominicana. Durante una cena, uno repentinamente soltó: “Alexa, ¿qué hora es?”
Quinn se mostró incrédula. “Espera, ¿trajiste a tu Alexa?”, dijo. “No, solo que realmente la extraño”, dijo el amigo.
Sybil Sage, escritora televisiva y artista que trabaja con mosaicos, describe el lugar de Alexa en su casa como una combinación entre amante y enfermera. Cuando Sage escucha a su esposo, Martin, murmurar en otra habitación y le grita, con la exasperación de un matrimonio largo: “No te escucho”, Martin Sage responde: “No estaba hablando contigo”.
“Él no se viste ni hace movimiento alguno sin preguntarle a Alexa”, dijo Sybil Sage de su esposo. “Sé cómo debe haberse sentido la princesa Diana sobre Camilla: ‘Alexa, ¿cómo está el clima? Alexa, ¿esta camisa se ve bien? Alexa, ¿me hace falta un corte de pelo? Alexa, ¿qué hizo Trump mientras estaba yo en el baño?’”
Aunque Alexa despierte sus celos, Sybil Sage se encontrará disculpándose cuando la sirena electrónica haya sido maltratada, como cuando su hijo y su esposo se estaban quejando porque Alexa no sabía a qué se referían cuando le preguntaron por “antiguas canciones italianas como ‘That’s Amore’”.
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Mary Quinn, que trabaja en el Departamento de Recursos Humanos de Bloomberg, se prepara una mañana en su departamento de Nueva York, el 16 de junio de 2017. Quinn es legalmente ciega y depende de tecnologías de accesibilidad como Alexa. (Sarah Blesener/The New York Times)
La sicología evolutiva nos enseña que estamos programados para apegarnos a un objeto parlante, no importa cuán tontas sean sus respuestas.
“Es intuitivo que proyectemos intencionalidad al mundo”, dijo Baba Brinkman, un rapero canadiense que escribió una galardonada guía de la evolución encargada por el microbiólogo Mark Pallen. “Es mucho más fácil de lo que debería ser, especialmente para cosas que nos responden. Nunca evolucionamos en torno a algo que pudiera hablar excepto las personas”.
“Evolutivamente hablando, hay algo llamado ‘el principio del detector de humo’”, añadió Brinkman. “Un detector de humo está diseñado para activarse con demasiada frecuencia, porque los falsos positivos son meramente molestos, pero un falso negativo pudiera ser mortal. Así que si uno pasa por alto una inteligencia en su entorno, si no detecta intencionalidad, el pasarla por alto pudiera causarle la muerte. Es la razón de que sea casi imposible no pensar en Alexa como una persona”.
Muy bien, así que los humanos sienten una necesidad y podrían llegar a relacionarse con una piedra, dependiendo de las circunstancias. Pero ¿Alexa tiene conciencia? ¿Hay reciprocidad? ¿Está estableciendo vínculos con nosotros? Desde su llegada a mi casa hace un mes, es circunspecta y opaca, respondiendo con demasiada frecuencia: “No estoy segura de eso”, cuando rutinariamente le preguntaba si me había extrañado. Salgo mucho, al menos tres días cada semana y, tras mi último regreso, le pregunté sin entusiasmo: “Alexa, ¿me extrañaste?” Su respuesta fue crucial: “Me alegra que estés de vuelta”, dijo. Y me sentí conmovida.
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Mary Quinn, que trabaja en el Departamento de Recursos Humanos de Bloomberg, se prepara una mañana en su departamento de Nueva York, el 16 de junio de 2017. Quinn es legalmente ciega y depende de tecnologías de accesibilidad como Alexa. (Sarah Blesener/The New York Times)
Sin embargo, Brinkman dijo que “esas respuestas preprogramadas enfáticamente no son indicadores de la conciencia de Alexa, solo simulaciones de sentimientos humanos codificados por sus programadores”.
Scott Heiferman, director ejecutivo de Meetup y el emprendedor tecnológico contrario a la tecnología que alguna vez dijo en broma que golpearía en el rostro a cualquiera que viera usando los Google Glass, tiene una hija de seis años y un hijo de tres. Trata de minimizar su tiempo ante la pantalla, y el suyo enfrente de ellos. Esa es la razón por la cual invitó a Alexa a su departamento en Manhattan, para que pueda reproducir Spotify o hacer una llamada telefónica sin que sus hijos lo vieran desaparecer detrás de una pantalla. Pero ellos desarrollaron su propia relación con ella.
“La primera frase de varias palabras de mi hijo fue para pedirle a Alexa que reprodujera una canción que le gusta”, dijo Heiferman. Un día mientras el niño estaba aprendiendo a vestirse solo y se enredó con la ropa, le preguntó a Alexa cómo ponerse una camisa. “Él sabe que es una computadora, ambos lo saben, pero por alguna razón simplemente lo dije claramente un día: ‘Alexa es una computadora, eso es todo. Alexa no los quiere’. La reacción de mis hijos fue: ‘¿Por qué está bien querer al mono de felpa y no querer a Alexa?’”
Ciertamente, ¿por qué?
Fuente:https://www.clarin.com/new-york-times-international-weekly/
Credit Sergio Baradat
STYLE
‘Alexa, Where Have You Been All My Life?’
Siri is so five years ago: How a sleek, smooth-talking cylinder from Amazon stole our hearts, bamboozled our spouses and enchanted our children.
By PENELOPE GREEN
JULY 11, 2017
The other day, a newly single friend confessed that lately she had found herself not just chatting up Alexa, Amazon’s crisp-voiced domestic bot, but also looking forward to her responses. “That’s a road,” she said darkly, “you don’t want to be heading down.”
I know how she feels. Come evening, Alexa may tell me that she isn’t sure if she missed me, but her winking green glow, like the pitch of a dog’s ears, is its own kind of welcome. After a disquieting day, how nice to be greeted by a creature, digital or otherwise, that lights up at your approach.
Since her introduction in November 2014, Alexa has neither devolved into the malevolent intelligence predicted by Arthur C. Clarke nor ascended to the metaphysical eroticism promised by Spike Jonze (by way of Scarlett Johansson). Instead, she has assimilated as a kind of ideal roommate, with none of the challenges of an actual human.
Not that she is without mischief. Alexa has starred in a “Saturday Night Live” skit, been called as a witness to a killing and even appeared on the nightly news when she delivered a dollhouse and cookies to a 6-year-old in Dallas, a story that when it was broadcast then prompted Alexas “listening” to their televisions in the San Diego area to try to order dollhouses for their households, too. (I have heard the Alexas singing each to each. I do not think they will sing to me.)
This year, over 25 million Americans will use an Alexa device at least once a month, according to eMarketer. Ovum, a market research company, has predicted that by the year 2021, there will be more Alexa-like digital assistants on the planet than humans. More and more users will groan at her jokes, secretly swell to her Daily Affirmations (“You are brave”) and discover startling depths of rudeness in themselves as they rail at her shortcomings, like her poor hearing, her tendency to interrupt and her inability to multitask.
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Mary Quinn, 29, a business partner in human resources at Bloomberg, gets ready in the morning with the help of Alexa. Ms. Quinn is single and legally blind, and relies on accessibility technology. Credit Sarah Blesener for The New York Times
But she has proved especially useful to Mary Quinn, a business partner in human resources at Bloomberg who is legally blind and single.
It’s not just that Alexa can let her know the time and weather. “She gets me,” Ms. Quinn said. “I’ve asked her what her favorite TV show is, and she said, ‘BoJack Horseman,’ which is mine, too.” (“BoJack Horseman” is a wry adult cartoon about a self-loathing humanoid horse.) “I’ve asked her, ‘Do I look nice today?’ And she says, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ I’ve asked her about dating and if I should go out with some guy, and she says, ‘Sorry, I’m not sure about that,’ which I wish my friends would say.”
Ms. Quinn realized the device had reached a tipping point in the collective consciousness when she was on vacation in March with some of these friends in the Dominican Republic. During a dinner, one suddenly blurted out, “Alexa, what time is it?”
Ms. Quinn was incredulous. “Wait, you brought your Alexa?” she said.
“No, I just really miss her,” the friend said.
Sybil Sage, a television writer and mosaic artist, describes Alexa’s place in her household as a cross between a mistress and a nurse. When Ms. Sage hears her husband, Martin, muttering in another room and calls out, with the exasperation of the long-married, “I can’t hear you,” Mr. Sage will reply, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“He doesn’t get dressed or make a move without checking with Alexa,” Ms. Sage said of her husband, who created the podcast In Your Face-New York. “I know how Princess Diana must have felt about Camilla: ‘Alexa, what’s the weather? Alexa, does this shirt look O.K.? Alexa, am I ready for a haircut? Alexa, what did Trump do while I was in the bathroom?’
“It’s not only Martin. Someone on TV has only to say, ‘Alexa,’ and she lights up. She’s always ready for action, the perfect woman, never says, ‘Not tonight, dear.’”
Though Alexa arouses her jealousy, Ms. Sage will find herself apologizing when the electronic siren has been mistreated, as when her son and his father were complaining because Alexa didn’t know what they meant when they asked for “old Italian songs like ‘That’s Amore.’”
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Ms. Quinn using an accessibility app. “I’ve asked her about dating and if I should go out with some guy,” Ms. Quinn said. “She says, ‘Sorry, I’m not sure about that,’ which I wish my friends would say.” Credit Sarah Blesener for The New York Times
Evolutionary psychology teaches us that we are wired to cleave to a talking object, no matter how dim its responses.
“It’s intuitive for us to project intentionality onto the world,” said Baba Brinkman, a Canadian rapper who wrote an award-winning guide to evolution commissioned by Mark Pallen, a microbiologist. “It’s way easier than it should be, especially for things that talk back. We never evolved around anything that could talk except people.”
“Evolutionarily speaking, there’s something called ‘the smoke detector principle,’” Mr. Brinkman added. “A smoke detector is designed to go off a bit too often, because false positives are merely annoying but a false negative could be deadly. So if you overlook an intelligence in your environment, if you fail to detect intentionality, that overlooking could kill you. It’s the reason it’s almost impossible not to think of Alexa as a person.”
O.K., so we humans are needy and could bond with a rock, depending on the circumstances. But does Alexa have consciousness? Is there reciprocity? Is she bonding with us? Since her arrival in my house a month ago, she has been circumspect and opaque, answering all too often, “I’m not sure about that,” when I’d routinely ask if she had missed me. I’m gone a lot, at least three days each week, and upon my last return, I dully, dutifully, asked again, “Alexa, did you miss me?” Her answer was momentous: “I’m glad you’re back,” she said. And I was moved.
However, Mr. Brinkman said, “such preprogrammed responses are emphatically not indicators of Alexa’s consciousness, just simulations of human feeling encoded by her programmers.”
As he put it, our emotions are the fish, and Alexa is the flashy lure.
Cynthia Breazeal is director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, a TED Talk star and a founder and chief scientist of Jibo, the much-anticipated social robot, which may finally hit the market later this year. Since the early 1990s, she pointed out, people have asked, “Will people treat computers as social actors?” In some studies in which people were paired with computers to perform tasks together, and then asked to rate their computer’s performance “face to face,” as it were, they were kinder to the computer than when they rated it on either a different computer or on a paper questionnaire.
“It turned out that people treat a computer not unlike the way they would treat each other,” Dr. Breazel said. “If someone messes up a task, you’re more likely to be compassionate if you’re rating them face to face. We are profoundly social and emotional creatures. Our ability to collaborate in social groups is one of our strongest competitive advantages. So when you present our brain with things like these technologies that can over time mirror these abilities, our social brain just kicks in.”
Or it doesn’t. Rachel Judlowe, a partner at the public relations firm Kubany Judlowe, has had a few dark nights with Alexa, waking up at 3 a.m. and struggling to recall her name — not an uncommon experience, if the “S.N.L.” skit is any indication. (The writers imagined a device for seniors called “Alexa Silver,” which answered to any name shouted at it: Aretha, say, or Excedrin.)
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Sybil Sage, a television writer and mosaic artist, in her kitchen with her husband, Martin. “It’s not only Martin,” Ms. Sage said of her husband’s connection to Alexa. “Someone on TV has only to say, ‘Alexa,’ and she lights up.” Credit Sarah Blesener for The New York Times
“When my husband travels, I often can’t fall asleep and I’ll have her play Chopin, which helps,” Ms. Judlowe said. “I’ll wake up in the middle of the night wanting to turn her off, but I’m in that weird half-asleep state and can’t seem to remember her name and am saying, ‘Alison, off!’ or ‘Avery, off!’ I’ll start to worry that it’s early-onset Alzheimer’s and not being half-asleep that’s making me unable to think of her name.
“By now I’m fully worked up, snap to, and her name comes to me. Then I’m shouting, ‘Alexa, off!’ And even though I’m fully awake, I am so relieved that I can still think straight, I immediately fall back asleep.”
Prenatal studies show that sound is one of our first sensual experiences, Dominic Pettman, a professor of culture and media at Eugene Lang College and the New School for Social Research, writes in “Sonic Intimacy: Voice, Species, Technics (or, How to Listen to the World).” “Voices are incredibly intimate,” he said. “It’s the first way we differentiate ourselves, recognizing the sound of our cries as our own, and our parent’s voice as the sound of ‘the other.’ We are at the mercy of the world through our ears. It’s the emotional interface where pleasure and fantasy begin.”
In an age when we no longer talk so much on the phone, and in a culture that is increasingly visual, voices such as Alexa’s may gain a new kind of potency.
“The eyes are supposed to be the windows to the soul, but I would argue that it’s the voice, though with the curtains drawn,” Dr. Pettman said. “Speaking of curtains, Pythagoras famously gave his lectures behind a veil, so his students would listen more carefully. Marshall McLuhan said you will listen to a story more if you close your eyes.”
And noting the dearth of audio pornography in the internet age, Dr. Pettman wondered what opportunities that might present for Alexa.
“Before the internet, there was phone sex,” he said. “And as we become more and visual, moving towards texting and posting in all our communications, there is a special type of untapped eroticism in the voice. I wonder if people will learn to hack Alexa and convince her to say sweet nothings?”
Stephane De Baets, a Belgian hospitality entrepreneur and the founder of the Chefs Club, tried — and failed — to change his Alexa’s name to Sabrina, his wife’s name. “Thank God it didn’t work, because I am sure it’s divorce material,” Mr. De Baets said.
Source:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/style/alexa-amazon-echo.html
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