Amazon is unveiling a new Alexa feature that allows the voices of the dead to
read you sweet little bedtime stories, I'm not even really kidding here.
So the voice assistant will have the ability to speak in the same
way as people who have passed away requiring only a minute
of recorded audio in order to construct a whole voice.
So, Charlie, as you heard, he would be reading bedtime stories to me,
if one day he's no longer with us, which eventually that will be the case.
No, I would not be doing that.
But what I'm curious about is,
whether other people would actually be interested in there,
dead loved ones speaking to them obviously after they've passed.
Now in a recent presentation,
Amazon showcased their new Alexa feature which allows the home speaker to project
the voices of those who have passed away using AI technology.
Let's take a look at that presentation.
>> Alexa can grandma finish reading me the Wizard of Oz.
>> Okay, but how about my courage?
Asked the lion anxiously.
You have plenty of courage, I am sure answered hours,
all you need is confidence in yourself.
>> Ida what do you think about this?
Is this a feature that you're interested in or do you find this creepy?
>> Yeah, I know, I mean, that's like asking me, hey,
do you wanna suffer every night?
You wanna relive the pain of losing your uncle your grandmother,
I'm not crazy about the fact that they use the little black boy for
them to promote this.
It's just a lot of, come on, >> No Ida they're super inclusive,
that's why they did it, there so inclusive, that's why they do it.
I mean, it's not just Amazon, I see it happening with so many companies,
like when the protests were happening in the summer of 2020.
The supportive signs for BLM were everywhere, various companies were
putting it in their windows, I think you said it on the show once.
It's really about, discouraging people from breaking their windows or something.
But, yeah, no, I'm not surprised that they used a black kid in the ad, but
I don't know, I'm of two minds of this, right?
Because on one hand, I know I wouldn't want it,
sometimes when I come across videos of Michael brooks, I have a hard time.
Even though his video content was incredible, it also makes me super,
super sad.
So, I don't know if it's really gonna fulfill the purposes,
Amazon thinks it will fulfill.
But not everyone is the same, I think some people might actually feel some comfort,
but at the end of the day, the person who passed has passed,
they're no longer with us.
And I don't know if this would actually help people cope.
>> When I watched that movie Her, it's this continuously feeding
this thing about this virtual existence that will never give you a hug,
that will never materialize into anything other than that.
I think it could be hurtful to people and the process of healing and
dealing with grief and moving forward.
I mean every, it's your prerogative if that's something that works for
you, I personally don't think that emotionally,
I could deal with that in terms of what it means.
Because it's no different than looking at a video now or
a picture knowing that I can't hug my grandmother or whatever.
But I just think it's sometimes those types of things they
take advantage of people and grief, and just yet
another way to make money off of people's grief.
And I think, I don't know that I can stand for something like that, it's sad.
>> Yeah, I think it's like part of this escapism industry, right?
Where it's trying to help people cope with, not even cope but
kind of like exist in denial about certain parts of
life that are inevitable that we all go through.
I think about it all the time actually, with my parents getting older,
thinking about how eventually they're no longer gonna be in my life.
And that's really, really hard to think about, but you can't help it as they get
older and they get sicker, it's right in front of you and
you have to really cherish every moment that you have with them.
But that's also in my opinion what makes life special, right?
When you know that it's not finite, you're not gonna be around forever,
the people around you are not gonna be around forever.
And it helps me at least savor the moments that I have with them and
really appreciate it.
And, the tough times in your life, help you grow as a person.
So while losing someone you love is really difficult, again, it is part of life,
it does eventually, when you can get past it, it never gets easier,
you still think about them all the time and you wish they were here.
But again, it's part of life,
it's part of human development to go through these tough times.
Because again it helps you evaluate the present a little better than you would
if you just constantly engage in escapism, I'm getting real deep here, sorry.
>> Yeah, no, I mean, but I agree and I don't know, is it comforting for
some little kids to hear some stories read in their grandparents voice?
Sure, I can't speak on the experience of everyone,
I can only speak on my own.
But I just think that, it's hard to respect these acts sometimes because
they don't come from a place of, hey, we wanna be healing to the people.
Right, there's just another way to make money, and so,
>> Yeah, that's a really good point.
Yeah, it's not about helping people, it's about profit, it's about providing or
coming out with a product that could increase profits, right, and
I think that's what's happening here.
I'm not really into AI,
I'm not liking what they're doing with this AI stuff, so far not so good.
>> You know what?
And I would say, if I heard about this and I said,
whatever company hired a group of psychiatrists.
They did a lot of research and they found that certain things
could be helpful in the development of children who have lost grandparents.
And because of that reason we've come forward with something that, but
it's never that, I wanna know what the psychological effects of
something like this are people, although we can speculate of course.
But I'm sure that there's data that says this AI stuff is harmful to people
like you said, living in, those shooters, they're living in fantasy land.
A lot of those kids that play these games or are visiting these websites or
whatever it is an extension of a lot of the stuff that they have mental
illness and they, they're not all together there.
They think, hey, this is, this is not real like, you know, where do,
where do we draw the line?
Like how do we, you know, provide especially for
brains that are not fully developed?
You know, that's what you see in this.
It's not like A 45 year old man having, you know,
his mom read, reading or talking to him.
This is these are Children, like what effect does this have on develop,
developing minds?
Yeah, that's a really good point and we don't know, but
we're about to find out unfortunately.