Amazon patents Alexa tech to tell if you’re sick, depressed and sell you meds
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More likely when it hears "It's ok, it happens to lots of guys...." you get a free sample of blue pills in the mail.
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Or it hears one of my kids voices, mistakes it for mine, and asks if I'd like to be connected with a doctor so that my testicles might be reattached.
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Echo could analyze your voice to detect a "physical or emotional abnormality."
I'm in trouble then. I always talk to Alexa with a funny voice.
I'm in trouble then. I always talk to Alexa with a funny voice.
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Are people talking to their Alexas enough for it to get a meaningful baseline for the emotional component of this? I could sort of see the "if you sound like you have a sore throat, recommend cough medications" application, but anything beyond that seems like you'd need to interact with your Alexa a lot more (and do more than issuing it simple commands) for it to get meaningful results.
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But can Alexa tell that it’s my 4-year who is attempting to add “chocolate chip cookies” to my shopping list and so be blocked?
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What if you have a parrot?
Can it make a distinction between you and the bird?
Will it be able tell if the bird is depressed?
Can it make a distinction between you and the bird?
Will it be able tell if the bird is depressed?
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That's the future, no more "lonely cat lady" tropes. It's going to be an elderly person sitting in a room talking to their home-monitor and media center AI for companionship... I just bummed myself out...
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Welp, I'm out.
Okay, okay, I was out long before this. But this is a good next-gen level of nope.
Okay, okay, I was out long before this. But this is a good next-gen level of nope.
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Probably yeah - though I imagine it would be more if you are using some of the skills that encourage more interaction like that.
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Suddenly the prevalence of "sickness" and "depression" in Alexa-users skyrockets...
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My mind would be blown to see the technology that allows for an accurate diagnosis of clinical depression based on the very minimal interaction that humans typically have with voice assistants. And that's not even getting into the legal framework that doesn't yet exist, but would be required to allow machines to prescribe anti-depressants.
ps. I'm a depression researcher.
ps. I'm a depression researcher.
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It's worth noting that your personal health information as generated by the medical system is private and protected. But your health information as obtained by a system like this that is not a medical professional, not to mention over the counter medications, are not protected in any way and can be freely processed and sold to advertisers, insurers, and other interested parties.
It's a really big hole in our privacy laws.
It's a really big hole in our privacy laws.
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"Alexa, open constant stream of personally identifiable data back to Amazon HQ."
"Way ahead of you!"
"Way ahead of you!"
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The Parrot is not depressed ... it's just sleeping or perhaps stunned.
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I just want to be able to tell it to skip to song 3 instead of, Alexa, next, Alexa, next, Alexa next.
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Sometimes, in a moment of consumer weakness, I'm tempted to relax my guard and get a device like the Echo or whatever. Then I hear something like this and it's like a cold glass of water in the face reminding me that putting an Amazon/Google spy microphone in my house is a terrible idea.
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I'm all for this (other than the patent aspect).
Wait, hear me out.
Because then Alexa data becomes covered under HIPAA laws. Can't have it both ways!
What is bothering me here, though, is that if this gets used for any mental health aspects versus just "do you have a sore throat?", then there are some deeper issues there, and it's something that at a minimum I'd like to require to be reviewed by and accredited by the APA even for basic analysis validity/reliability, much less any recommendations then provided.
What's also bothering me, tangentially, is that this patent sounds suspiciously like something I suspect has prior art in terms of vocal analysis, and instead is just "doing it on a computer" and thus should be thrown out under Alice.
Wait, hear me out.
Because then Alexa data becomes covered under HIPAA laws. Can't have it both ways!
What is bothering me here, though, is that if this gets used for any mental health aspects versus just "do you have a sore throat?", then there are some deeper issues there, and it's something that at a minimum I'd like to require to be reviewed by and accredited by the APA even for basic analysis validity/reliability, much less any recommendations then provided.
What's also bothering me, tangentially, is that this patent sounds suspiciously like something I suspect has prior art in terms of vocal analysis, and instead is just "doing it on a computer" and thus should be thrown out under Alice.
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Prescribing anti-depressants is probably not on the table, but over the counter drugs like cough suppressants is.
But this is a pretty narrow view of what this is about. Mood has significant effects on purchasing decisions. E.g. see https://www.theatlantic.com/business/ar ... ss/380986/ Amazon may not have an interest in whether you need anti-depressants, but they do want to know whether they should be serving you ads for televisions, vacation travel, or comfort food. Getting information on your health and mental state is an ideal way to take advantage of you.
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This would be just the same as talking to an AI entity like we've seen in scifi for decades, if the processing were local. But it isn't. The processing is remote. Local device is just a voice recorder sending your voice to the cloud, and cloud does speech to text, finds an answer, sends it back, and device then does a text to speech.
The backend keeps everything you've ever sent them and learn more about you as time goes on.
Anyone still fine with this after they know how it works, perhaps they deserve the consequences. But vast majority don't know how it works.... :/
The backend keeps everything you've ever sent them and learn more about you as time goes on.
Anyone still fine with this after they know how it works, perhaps they deserve the consequences. But vast majority don't know how it works.... :/
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If you'd stop telling it to skip three songs, that would go a long way to helping you get to song 3 instead of song 4.
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This seems to be a concept (and a lousy one at that), rather than a concrete invention ... a quick scan of the patent text shows nothing that would act as a teaching as to how you would actually do any of this ...
... which is probably a good thing
... which is probably a good thing
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I wonder if it will order you more BrainForce pills after your wife runs away from the house crying after you wouldn't stop yelling about the Zionist agenda spreading chemtrail poisons.
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And I still have to past the point that I pay for a device (alexa variant), then serves me Ad's.
besides the privacy concerns and those data be sold to my future employer....
besides the privacy concerns and those data be sold to my future employer....
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Also, Jon, I really hope that you're not conflating sadness with depression. They're not the same. Amazon's blurb only mentions "sadness", so I'm not sure why the article brings in depression:
vs
These aren't equivalent (sadness and depression are completely different when discussing mental health contexts, which the article does bring this into), so I'm curious how "depressed" came into this (if it's somewhere else in the patent, that's fine, but what's quoted here doesn't have it).
vs
These aren't equivalent (sadness and depression are completely different when discussing mental health contexts, which the article does bring this into), so I'm curious how "depressed" came into this (if it's somewhere else in the patent, that's fine, but what's quoted here doesn't have it).
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