How Amazon's Alexa is bringing intelligent assistance into the mainstream

To paraphrase William Gibson, "The future is already here and, thanks to intelligent assistants (IA), it is more evenly distributed than ever before." Based on our spoken input, mobile personal assistants (like Siri and Google Now) answer questions, navigate routes, and organize meetings. Close cousin Alexa, running on the Echo, understands our utterances when we order pizza, hail an Uber, or complete an order from Amazon. Meanwhile, a large set of distant cousins – call them text'bots – understand "plain English" requests and can recommend restaurants, movies, or even bridal fashions. We humans are learning to take over our digital lives using our own words and our choice of digital device.