Google Home – the always-listening connected speaker. Welcome to the next generation of consumer data collection. At Alphabet’s hardware launch event last week, the company unveiled it’s answer to Amazon’s Echo: a wireless speaker with a set of microphones built into it, allowing the neat little device to continuously listen to you. A physical “mute” button on top let’s you tell it to stop listening, and actually, that’s the most interesting thing about it – Google Home listens to you by default.
Our personal devices are becoming more personal than we ever could have imagined, and Google Home is a clear testament to that. The company has positioned itself right at the heart of consumer data, with access to unlimited, highly personal information. It’s always listening, always learning. TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas put it perfectly, “in other words, your daily business is Google’s business.”
Personal spaces like your home and office are being turned into gold mines of consumer data, all fueling Google’s AI technology. That’s the nature of machine learning, it needs information to become useful. In order to give you suggestions on where you might like to eat or what the traffic’s like on your commute to work, it needs to continuously harvest your personal information, preferences etc. and learn, infinitely. It sounds a little paranoid, but that’s the raw truth. When I first heard about Google Home (and the rest of Google’s hardware line), I was pretty excited, to be honest. Besides its good-looks, it seemed Google was in a better position than anyone to pull off an AI-powered home device, which added huge appeal. Having had a bit of a think, however, I’m somewhat nervous about giving them total unobstructed access to the most personal aspects of my life…
AI is becoming an integral part of our lives, the more we find utility in it, and businesses like Google are tapping directly into that in order to profit in a multitude of ways. Google Home offers direct access to our most personal spaces, and it’s difficult to deny that it feels a little invasive – but then that depends on your perspective, I guess. In any case, it seems we may have come to a crossroads; we need to ask ourselves if we’re ready to give up that access and, perhaps more to the point, are we to gain or to lose from doing so?
It seems pretty clear to me: consumer data is the currency of the future, and Google is going to be absolutely swimming in it.
Sources:
- https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/04/say-hello-to-google-home/
- https://madeby.google.com/home/
- https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/05/not-ok-google/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/technology/google-to-introduce-its-voice-activated-home-device.html?_r=1
- https://thescene.com/watch/wired/google-is-changing-its-gadget-game?source=player_scene_logo