The fundamental problem with smart speakers and voice-based AI assistants

This article is part of Demystifying AI, a series of posts that (try to) disambiguate the jargon and myths surrounding AI. Since Amazon Echo shipped in late 2014, smart speakers and voice assistants have been advertised as the next big thing. Nearly four years later, despite the millions of devices sold, it's clear that like many other visions of the tech industry, that perception was an overstatement. Testament to the fact: Most people aren't using Alexa to make purchases, one of the main advertised use cases of Amazon's AI-powered voice assistant. Voice assistants have existed before the Echo.