The built-in screen gives you another helpful security feature if you have an Echo Show. You can turn on the camera from anywhere to make sure everything is OK at home. With Drop In, you can pop in on your speaker or one owned by a friend or family member who has authorized access. It's an excellent way to say hello without picking up the phone. Now, you can use the Alexa app to pop into your own Echo devices. In the app, tap Communicate at the bottom of the screen, then Drop In. Choose the device you want from the list. MORE ECHO USES: 'Alexa, I want to talk to a doctor' - How to use your Echo to get medical help The Amazon Echo, a voice-controlled virtual assistant, is seen at it's product launch for Britain and Germany in London, Britain, September 14, 2016.

But what will that look like? I don't care about the surveillance issues, psychological damage, and robot relationships that are obviously decades away. I care about the near future. What's going to impact me? How do I get snuffed out?

Indeed, it would almost be a waste to simply use it as a regular Bluetooth speaker or ask it about it tomorrow's weather. Apple's Siri can already do that. More and more smart-home and connected-device companies are adding support for Amazon's smart AI assistant, called Alexa, so you can control almost anything that uses electricity in your home using your voice. All you need to add Alexa and voice control to your home is Amazon's $45 Echo Dot. If you need a portable Bluetooth speaker, you can check out the $100 Amazon Tap, which comes with Alexa, and the original Echo is also $100, but it needs a wired connection to a power outlet.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Briefing subscribers hours before it appeared on Business Insider. To be the first to know, please click here. Amazon is looking to transform the Echo smart speaker and its Alexa voice assistant into an advertising platform, according to CNBC. The e-commerce giant has talked with a number of consumer products companies about the potential ads and the form that they would take. Opening up Alexa to advertising could create a major revenue opportunity for Amazon and skill-making partners, but could also pose a risk to the company as it looks to build on its early lead in the smart speaker market.

We've long been used to talking to our technology. Apple's Siri first launched six years ago, after all. But industry experts say that entirely voice-controlled gadgets, like Amazon's Echo smart speakers, are getting us more comfortable than ever with bossing around our tech. The Echo works like this: You put one in your home and connect it to your Wi-Fi network. Then, after a bit of customization, you're able to order it to do certain tasks using one of several "wake words," like "Alexa."

Most people have an Amazon Echo in their kitchen or living room - but the CEO of Amazon keeps one in his bathroom. In a recent interview with Billboard, Jeff Bezos revealed there is a smart speaker in every room of his house, including his water closet. The tech tycoon moved a device into the room after being frustrated when he could not ask Alexa about the weather while on the toilet. Most people keep an Amazon Echo in their kitchen or living room, but the CEO of Amazon has one in his bathroom. Amazon Echo is a voice-controlled smart speaker that works alongside a smartphone app.

On November 6 2014, Amazon announced Echo, a smart speaker featuring a voice-controlled assistant service called Alexa. The company didn't exactly go out of its way to whip up excitement for these newcomers. In sharp contrast to the rollout of its ill-fated Fire Phone--which kicked off with a press-conference extravaganza starring Jeff Bezos--it simply disclosed that Echo existed and would be sold, at first, on an invitation-only basis to Prime members. But Echo spoke for itself--and not just literally. People quickly saw that the pint-size cylinder was a genuinely new kind of consumer-electronics device.

Amazon's voice-controlled speaker Echo and its Alexa software have been so successful that even rivals such as Google and reportedly Apple are developing competing versions. But Babak Hodjat, the inventor of the technology behind Apple's voice recognition system Siri, doesn't believe in Echo and Alexa's hype. He thinks they still lack one major component that makes human-machine conversations more complete: visual interactions. "It has to be augmented with all sorts of other visual cues, interactions, and maybe show some icons to allow the user to be able to click," Hodjat told Business Insider. "A solely speech recognition based system with no other user interface or contextual elements is incomplete."

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is very bullish on his company's artificial intelligence push. So bullish, in fact, that Amazon has invested four years of research into its key project in AI -- and stacked that project with a sizable staff. Bezos said at the Code Conference that the team on Alexa, Amazon's smart voice-assistant software, and Echo, its flagship device, is now more than 1,000 employees. "We've been working behind the scenes for the last four years," he said about Echo and Alexa. Other tech giants are moving into the space.