New Horizons Reflection Blogging: Alexa and other AIs

Last fall I splurged on a new “smart” overhead light that can, besides lighting the room: switch between a full rainbow of colors, produce colorful, changing light patterns, and uses a built in AI to listen to the music I play and produce a light show that matches the rhythm and tone. Listening to music is one of my favorite ways to unwind, and I have had many moments this winter, lying on my bed and listening to music, reflecting on the artificial intelligence in my ceiling lamp. Sometimes it really nails the light performance, other times it feels out of sync either rhythmically or emotionally. The instinct to personify it is strong, especially when I feel that it really “gets” the music I’m playing.

I had similar thoughts reading the articles in the New Horizons unit reflecting on the ubiquity of Alexa and other AI-assistant devices in our homes. I’ve never lived with one, but will be moving in with my long-term partner this summer and expect their Alexa to make the move as well. I’m a little late to the game with AI-assistants, but I also feel ahead of the game with generative AI such as ChatGPT, and feel that the contemporary fear of AI is incommensurate with how easily we’ve welcomed it’s predecessor into our homes. The studies done on children who have always lived with Alexa are fascinating, as are any reflections on the human instinct to anthropomorphize the robots around us.

As with Alexa as with generative AI: the future is here and the best way to interact with it is to do so curiously. It’s easy to lend AI assistants and other technology the respect you’d offer a human assistant, but that seems to be an easy way to neglect exploring the real limitations and structure of the technology you’re working with. My partner and I really enjoy trying to confuse their Alexa, and push it up against the limits of its programming. Doing so reminds us of the (important to remember and easy to forget) fact that the little cylinder is really just a bunch of code that doesn’t understand reality as we do.

Just as libraries offer classes to teach basic technology skills to those later on the uptake, I think there are endless opportunities for classes to really explore AI. Many people alive today will live lives integrated with these technologies, and setting aside exploration space to think critically about them will be essential for healthy relations with these devices.