Amazon’s race to create the endangered computer

For his last column in 2017, Walt Mossberg predicted that technology would take a back seat and that “ambient computing” would become ubiquitous. Four years later we are on the right track, but what exactly that term means for how computers work and how we will live is still very uncertain.

Many companies are working on a vision of ambient computing, but no one is working anymore to try to make the idea of ​​ambient computing a reality. at present as Amazon’s hardware manager, Dave Limp. How He’s Building That Future Today is a case study of how Big Tech confuses our preconceived notions about how progress works. We expected the AI ​​to look like HAL 9000. Instead, it looks a lot more like a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog.

During Amazon’s annual gadget announcement lollapalooza, the company typically announces literally dozens of new Alexa-connected devices. Releasing so many different devices in such a compelling clip makes some sense: If computers are meant to be all around us, Amazon needs to produce as many different types of computers as possible.

This year, Amidst the Flood, Limp presented three paradigmatic devices of his view of what he calls “ambient intelligence”. Replacing the word “computer” with “intelligence” is an indication that it is trying to change the way our digital lives will function in the future.

Today, however, these three devices are limited to pushing the limits – and our comfort levels with – what we expect from smart homes. Above all, all three are participating in a new kind of computing platform that is unlike what we’re used to seeing from Big Tech. It is diffuse, dispersed and sometimes difficult to understand.

Most importantly is Astro, a two-wheeled robot with a screen for one face that can move around your home and serve as a watchdog, assisted living companion, and (of course) a beer delivery vehicle. There’s also Amazon Glow, a new kind of video conferencing gadget that projects a playing surface onto a table, so your grandchildren are less likely to wander off during a call.

Finally, while it’s not nearly as strange, the new Echo Show 15 has the chance to make the idea of ​​a true smart home family hub a reality by turning the Echo into a large digital photo frame that you can. hang on your wall. This familiarity means that he is the one who is likely to sell the most and therefore have the most impact.

Normally when we talk about gadgets we are talking about the operating systems they run on. IPhones have iOS, Samsung phones have Android, Windows computers have, well, Windows. But the operating system on Amazon gadgets is almost irrelevant – because the point is that the thing that Actually what matters is the Alexa ecosystem they are connected to. “I don’t really think of it as an operating system in the traditional sense,” Limp says.

“We see this as a framework that we internally call ambient intelligence,” says Limp. “It’s not an individual system. These are a lot of systems that work in the cloud ”and on what is called“ edge ”- the gadgets that you actually have in your home. To say that there is only one Alexa platform is not exactly correct, argues Limp. It’s an old way of thinking. “Behind the scenes, we have this whole layer of software, literally, hundreds of different services, some on the edge, some in the cloud,” he says.

More than any other tech journalist, I made jokes about “What is a computer?” ad – the one that asks us to recontextualize the way a new generation thinks about the iPad. But with Amazon’s ambient intelligence platform, this is no longer a joke. The computer is both in the cloud and on the device, and the actual computing takes place here, there, and everywhere – and as a consumer it is getting harder and harder to locate.

Some of these are happening and will continue to happen “at the limit.” Amazon promises to enable fully local processing of your voice on new devices soon. Ring Alarm systems can be end-to-end encrypted, and the new one can be used without even sending the encrypted video to Amazon’s cloud. The Astro robot must perform all of its navigation and recognition directly on the device for privacy and convenience reasons.

But after that, it’s a messy mix of input, output, machine learning, and hunches (literally, Amazon calls its technology to predict your orders “hunches”). Limp says that up to one in four actions taken by Alexa devices today is proactive – they’re performed by Alexa based on what she has learned about your desires rather than in response to a specific command.

In Alexa and its associated gadgets, Amazon has created an equally important computing paradigm as Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android. But because it’s scattered among smart home gadgets and smart speakers instead of monolithic displays that we interact with directly, it’s harder to pin down or describe.

“We’re trying to bring this ambient intelligence and this AI to places that the industry seems to have abandoned,” Limp said. Rather than trying to tackle the rest of Big Tech directly, Amazon has always (aside from the Fire phone) tried to go places where there is less competition. In doing so, it has carved out a place for itself in the smart home and voice assistant space with the Alexa platform.

Moreover, in doing so, Amazon has sparked controversy. The very nature of smart home gadgets means that they will have cameras, microphones, and other sensors. Whenever Amazon announces a new type of gadget, there is an inevitable and often justified reaction lest it will further erode our privacy. While the company has done a lot of work securing its devices and providing clear, strong protections, the backlash is inevitable given the nature of the products.

Limp’s point of view is that a future where computers and sensors are everywhere is inevitable, so he tries to build them with safeguards in place. “I can’t imagine a world 10 years from now in our future where every house doesn’t have at least one robot,” he says. “I don’t anticipate a future where every house doesn’t have some sort of ambient intelligence. And so the question is, what can you do to make sure you get to that future, but you don’t end up with the Orwellian, dystopian version of it? For us, this means that we have to somehow invent our way. “

There is a sort of cheekiness in some Amazon gadgets. Last year it announced (although it hasn’t shipped yet) a video drone that flies inside your home. This year’s Astro robot is almost guaranteed to elicit a resounding ‘no’ from privacy advocates despite the company’s promises to securely manage sensitive data locally on the device.

“Speaking of the industry as a whole, I think they are not taking enough risks. Why wouldn’t you want a customer to try a robot if you can build it? Limp asks. “Why wouldn’t you want to see a customer try out a Glow and see if it resonates with grandparents or a parent on deployment or wherever they are. I think our job is to invent like that.

Here is the bond Amazon has made for itself: It is building an ambient computing platform that is diffuse and hard to pin down, but the things that we rightly demand from our computing platforms – things like privacy, security and responsibility – require specific answers and clear. While on paper Amazon almost always has answers to the biggest privacy questions, it’s the questions we don’t know how to ask that are often the most troubling.

Platforms also aim to help other people rely on them. A platform should create a successful economy around it, where other businesses are able to build businesses. Given the proliferation of smart home gadgets, Amazon certainly has.

But most platforms also help us Make things. I take videos with my phone, play music on my tablet, write blogs on my laptop, and create spreadsheets on my desk. Amazon’s platform is all about convenience and consumption. Alexa sets timers and answers questions, but she also plays music. There’s home security, of course, but there’s also Kindle books, Prime TV, Amazon Music, and Kids Plus content. There is a difference between entertainment and creation.

At the base of it all, Amazon realizes this platform through the most Amazonian medium: retail. It is building our ambient computing future with smart cameras, speakers, robots, photo frames, light bulbs, and other gadgets. We’ve just started to understand how to think about the societal implications of smartphones; now we have robots and teleconferencing board game systems for kids. Everything happens very quickly.

Amazon’s ambient intelligence platform is successful because it is less constrained by the computing paradigms of the past. It has undoubtedly made our homes smarter and our lives more convenient. The disappearing computer can do a lot for us; now the next question is what we will be able to do with it.