This week's Question: Google, Amazon, and Apple have developed — or are in the process of developing — voice-based personal assistants that "listen" and respond to verbal commands. The Amazon Echo, a 9-inch tall, voice-operated cylindrical speaker powered by an artificial-intelligence agent, was released last year; Google launched its Home speaker at the company's I/O event last month; and Apple is opening its Siri voice assistant to outside app developers. With the technologies, a user's verbal commands could soon initiate a variety of actions: controlling the lights in your home, turning on your car, playing video on your TV, or accessing the Internet, for example. The assistants could also provide increasingly personalized information based on one's specific commands and actions.

What do you think?


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