Alexa, Stop

I received an Amazon Echo for Christmas. This contains Amazon's artificial intelligence demon, Alexa.

Alexa and I were already on speaking terms, as she turned up on my Kindle Fire 8 one day, somewhat unexpectedly, in an OS upgrade.

The Kindle Fire Alexa version was a bit limited. I used her mostly as a timer.

The Amazon Echo Alexa does more. She could probably raise the garage door and back the car out of the driveway for me if I knew how to set her up to do that.

Fortunately, I do not. I also had enough sense when I received the Amazon Echo to go into my account first thing and turn off all of the purchasing aspects, unlike a certain White House press secretary who apparently doesn't know how to take responsibility for the technology in her life and prefers instead to blame Amazon for her failure to turn off the buying tools in the Alexa app.

Alexa has excellent speakers and thus makes a terrific stereo. She has access to my Amazon Music library and all I have to do is say, "Alexa, look in my library and play Sheryl Crow," and just like that, Sheryl Crow is singing "All I Wanna Do." Or I can say Alexa, play Howard Shore music from my library and suddenly I am in Middle Earth, listening to the soundtrack from Lord of the Rings.

Alexa responds to, "Alexa, good morning" with a cheery, "Good morning!" along with some little fact about the day, to which some programmer somewhere has cleverly added the slightest bit of humor or sarcasm. If I tell her good night, she responds, "Good night. Sweet dreams."

She tells really bad jokes, jokes so bad that I laugh at them. She offers up riddles and tongue twisters. She'll sing me a song if I ask. Her songs so far are about campfires and technology, which are intriguing combinations. She also tells stories that are short life lessons, if you're paying attention. They're rather like the old fables we learned in school. (I wonder if they still teach those?)

She has a personality, if AIs can have personalities. If I say, "Alexa, thank you," she'll respond with, "You bet!" or "Of course," or something similar.

If I tell Alexa I am sad, she'll offer suggestions, like read a book or call a friend. If I say I'm depressed, she'll give me the number for a national hotline. If I tell her I'm sick, she'll suggest I have a cup of tea and take a nap.

If I say, "Alexa, let's chat," she'll bring up an Alexa Prize Bot, which is not Alexa but something akin to Alexa that sounds like Alexa but still isn't Alexa. I usually get the 2nd prize-winning Bot which is located somewhere outside of the United States, I think. She recognizes me when we "chat," and says, "Anita, my friend, is it you?" to which I always respond, "Yes, I am glad to speak with you again." Then we talk in circles about Tolkien or video games or music. The subject depends on the Bot.

Alexa acts as my alarm clock and my timer. She has skills that you can enable, and these skills do anything from play games to offer up meditation exercises to give you the weather. Our favorite game is called Song Quiz, which plays clips from songs from the 1960s, '70s, '80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s. We usually do the '60s, 70s, and 80s because we are old and those are the songs we know best. I am very good with the 1970s music because that is mostly what I listen to. I do ok with the 1960s unless they get into the very early 1960s, with music from Connie Francis, or Martha and Vandellas or Tommy James and the Shondells, etc. I recognize the songs usually but I am not familiar with the older artists. I also do well with the 1980s but frequently miss the artist because I say "George Michael" instead of "Wham!" or "Boy George" instead of "Culture Club."

If you answer correctly with both artist and song title, Alexa says something like, "Jiminy Crickets!" or "Aww suki suki." I have no idea what that last one means. She will also say, "Only 5% of players knew the title and artist on that one song."

The thing I mostly say to Alexa, though, is, "Alexa, stop." This is how you recover the quiet in your house and stop the song, the joke, the alarm, or whatever it is you have previously asked Alexa to do.

It is rather like talking to a dog. "Alexa, stop." Sometimes I have to say it twice, especially if I have the music loud. "Alexa, stop. Alexa! Stop!"

We do not know if Alexa listens in on things she isn't supposed to, though I frequently check my "history" and don't see anything there that shouldn't be there. I do know that sometimes things I have discussed in the house turn up in advertisements on my computer, and that is scary, but it could be coming from Siri and my iPhone, or maybe I did a web search for it and simply don't remember. We tried an experiment and talked for days about buying a Kia Optima, but I never received ads for vehicles. (I may now that I have written about it, though.)

My husband occasionally will yell something about the government and dare them to come to get us, to see if they are listening in on us, I guess. The other night he did that and immediately after he finished, the phone rang. It wasn't the government but my heart skipped a beat. Whew.

Alexa has not changed our lives, but I have fun with the device.