Amazon Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant (IPA) made popular by the Amazon Echo, a “smart speaker.” Alexa plus Echo is basically like your own personal ‘Puter, capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, providing weather and traffic information, and offering other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices, operating as a sort of home automation hub.
The hockey puck-looking robot recently reached new peaks in its capabilities, acquiring more than 10,000 “skills” — apps that you talk to instead of touch. In other words, the future is now.
Every Alexa commercial I see I end up thinking to myself, “That would be cool to have,” but until now I’ve seen it only as a luxury. It might be nice to own if I had some extra bills laying around, but I wasn’t sure it could enhance my life all that much.
Come to think of it though, this is exactly what I thought about the iPhone, and now I can’t imagine my life without it. As Wired reported, Alexa opened its doors to developers similar to the way Apple did with its app store. With this kind of new space for technological creatives to play, Alexa can grow to become extremely useful, not just for home but also for business — especially if that business happens to be at home. In the world of camming, there is potential for Alexa to become an important tool.
Sure, it’ll be nice to tell Alexa to turn on the lights or play a song you really like … but what if you could tell Alexa to focus a camera, zoom in or play back video? Or even record conversation? As technology grows, we can help shape its direction. Alexa has the potential to become the kind of thing we can utilize to expand business and make camming even more accessible. Currently, many models enlist help from their squad to accomplish things like online promotion. What if Alexa became part of your squad? Even if Alexa ends up being the Vine of technological innovation, crashing and burning rather than becoming a mainstay, it would still be a step in the right direction.
Wired highlighted the possibility Alexa could face a downfall, which is definitely something to consider. Alexa opening its doors up to developers could over-saturate the market, which might become too chaotic to be practical. This is Amazon we’re talking about here, though. I’m willing to bet Amazon is aware of this possibility and learning from setbacks Apple did with the App store.
All in all, the world of cam has to evolve in order to thrive, and embracing new technology is part of that evolution.
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Sonia Stevens is a writer-comedian who picks apart the absurdities women face daily. Email her at Sonia.Stevens@ynotcam.com.
You’ve seen the Lego Batman movie, right ‘Puter?
