Idiotic agents within home
Maria Tsilogianni · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · 2022
Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs) are voice-enabled virtual agents providing automated functionality through very specific interactions structured around embedded and cloud-based intelligence. However, concerns related to privacy and data extraction, along with users’ frustration over limited interactions, have rendered them controversial. Their ‘intelligence’ is the main control point through which tech companies turn human life into quantifiable data sold to advertisers. Hence, users are instrumentalized and IPAs become passive tools promoting efficiency or enemies trespassing on users’ privacy.