Amazon's Alexa Is Coming To an Office Near You (axios.com) 74
Amazon announced today that it's bringing its voice assistant into a range of business settings, big and small, like hotels and co-working spaces. From a report: While people always think of Amazon as a consumer company, it has shown itself time and again to have larger ambitions. This move could help it expand tis business services beyond its already popular Amazon Web services. In an interview, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels said that exposure to the workplace will improve Alexa by exposing it to new types of conversations. "The kind of language we use in our offices is sometimes radically different from the more conversational things we do in our(homes)," he told Axios. Alexa "will greatly improve by being exposed to different kinds of statements or conversations."
Legally risky (Score:5, Interesting)
In countries where employees have some privacy rights, this could expose employers to legal risks.
Any hotel using this will drive my business elsewhere.
the bates motel just has that crazy guy working th (Score:3)
the bates motel just has that crazy guy working there with the hole in the wall from the office to bathroom in room 1
Re:Not could. DOES. (Score:4, Informative)
"There were several court cases, where employers used surveillance against their employers, and they all lost"
Railway dispatchers and their airplane colleagues have had all their conversations, be that normal, per phone, radio, loudspeakers lawfully recorded since the dawn of time.
Also police officers are getting forced to wear cameras, their radio messages have also been recorded forever.
Supermarkets have had cameras for decades, they also cover the check-out personnel. Ditto for banks.
I could continue but it's now happy hour.
4 Words re: Alexa in Offices (Score:2)
There goes corporate security.
Strat
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry Google (Score:1)
Sorry Google, but Amazon appears to have become the thought leader in conversational AI. Has innovation at Google stagnated?
Nope? (Score:2)
Possibley (Score:5, Insightful)
Google, Amazon, Apple are all missing the point.
Technologies like this are fantastic, but only if you can wall them off from the outside world, at least as far as sending information goes.
Put it all on a chip, provide incoming links only, and robust protection against injection type attacks. So, no sending info out, and no using outside info to affect inside systems.
Tough nut to crack, I know. But that's the ticket!
Re:Possibley (Score:5, Informative)
Not really, the payoff for these technologies is mining your data, selling you an app is only a means to that end. And most regular proles have no idea what an injection attack is. It isn't clear they even think sending out their information is a bad thing, and you might have to define the term "information" to them.
Do we get to listen to the Amazon boardroom? (Score:5)
Nothing like a huge corporate security leak.
Business case for this does not exist (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
What would be the rationale for putting Alexia into any business that would justify initial purchase and deployment costs? What about control of proprietary information? What about control of legally sensitive information?
And you act like there was rationale or justification to put an always-on listening device in peoples homes. Our private conversations in our homes are at minimum sensitive and usually private, and that certainly didn't stop Amazon.
I can easily see a company run by a bunch of ignorant Millennials infecting their business with automation and IoT just because is the hip cool thing to do. Doesn't need to have any more rationale than that.
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You do realize that IoT lighting means if you want voice commands it will by default have a microphone which will record everything you are saying at all times. You got that, right? In fact there is no IoT that isn't recording something at all times. That's how they get it to work.
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What would be the rationale for putting Alexia into any business that would justify initial purchase and deployment costs?
. . . handling guest requests usually served by the concierge: "Where's a good restaurant? Can you get me some musical tickets? Can you order me a pizza and some 'female companionship'?"
The financial gain will be booting your concierge and maybe a few other staff, as well.
Maybe not the thing that Marriott guests would want, but OK for the Motel 6 crowd.
Hey, there are even "Express" hotels with no visible staff at all! Just pop your credit card in, and the vending machine will give you your key.
Let us spy on you! (Score:3)
Who the fuck thinks this sort of thing is a Good Idea?
Spying on your employees?
Possibly exposing your business practices to another business entity (who you may or may not be competing with)?
I'd think that this sort of thing is something only a raging dumbass would do...
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Who the fuck thinks this sort of thing is a Good Idea?
Spying on your employees?
Possibly exposing your business practices to another business entity (who you may or may not be competing with)?
I'd think that this sort of thing is something only a raging dumbass would do...
And for those of us doing work for the government, I'm sure the department of defense has signed off on Alexa as a secure device, right?
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Hey, it worked out for the Furby, right?
=)
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Amazon, and they don't mind spying on your employees...and for a bit off the top, they'll let you do the spying for them.
Look at all you Debbie Downers! (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, seriously, no one can think of some possibilities here?
"Alexa, file a helpdesk ticket about the WiFi not working."
"Alexa, we need more coffee for the break room. Order some Kopi Luwak."
"Alexa, laugh maniacally whenever Steve says 'development'."
"Alexa, please translate the last several minutes of the VP of Marketing's presentation into actual English."
"Alexa, it's cold in here, turn up the thermostat." *next cubicle over* "Alexa, it's hot in here, turn down the thermostat."
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It's not Alexa, but I still chuckle about the Autonomous Smart Desk 3 [autonomous.ai]. It's got AI! It's learns about you!
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...exposing it to new types of conversations.... (Score:2)
Indeed - I'll put one into our weekly program review meeting; the fucking Amazon server will explode...
Alexa, who has the conference room on Friday? (Score:2)
Playing the Who on Spotify.
No, not it's not (Score:2, Insightful)
First the business case doesn't exist. It's not needed or desired. Not to mention the boat loads of industry that just can't have something like this in their office at all. Financial industry, attorneys, medical, government. There I just ruled out 80% of the workforce.
Hotel lobby,maybe, and only as a novelty, but no place else in the hotel. And for what actual purpose would you use this spyware device?
Re: No, not it's not (Score:1)
I was thinking the same. My department is 100% hipaa.
Re:Fabulous! (Score:4, Interesting)
As terrible as Lotus was at user interfaces, Lotus Notes had strong message encryption, digital signatures, and two-factor authentication as standard features all the way back in 1989. As such it was actually ahead of what most people have today.
The main problem was that you couldn't find administrators who understood any of that shit back in 1990.
Oh HELL no (Score:3)
What serious business would seriously consider an always on surveillance device that eavesdrops on every conversation around them?
You may as well put up a big sign in your window that says, "Trade Secrets available to anyone who will listen!"
Two basic things it needs first... (Score:4, Insightful)
We got an Amazon Echo at work to see if it's any use for business activities as it stands. First problem was that there's no way to configure a proxy server to gain access to Amazon (and other) remote servers, which is incredibly short-sighted of them.
Second issue is that an "obvious" business use is recording (and preferably transcribing) business meetings, but I was *shocked* that the Echo can't even take a simple voice note and record it for you for later access (never mind transcribing to text, which would be another essential feature).
As everyone has been pointing out here, everything the Echo does seems to go through Amazon's servers, so business confidentiality seems to be a major stumbling block to business acceptance. Heck, I can't even tell if the data goes out encrypted (without sniffing the network traffic) and is always stored encrypted.
InfoSec says NO (Score:4, Interesting)
As an InfoSec guy, there is NO WAY IN HELL any of these type of devices are getting into my building.
In fact, I think our next infosec newsletter will mention keeping these away from work-from-home spaces, as well
Alexa (Score:2)
Alexa, can you get everybody to SHUT THE FUCK UP?
I'm trying to do, you know, actual work here.
Re: (Score:2)
You can always lock it in the phone booth [slashdot.org].
If these things show up in my workplace, (Score:2)
Then I am SO outta there. I already have to dodge and weave - and issue threats which I fully plan to make good on if push comes to shove - just to keep pictures of myself off of Facebook. If I so much as SEE an Alexa-based device or its equivalent, then I'm packing up my tools and walking out the door.