Let me
set the scene. You’re ready to jump in your cozy dorm room bed at Saint Louis
University and you set an alarm for 9:00 AM on your university-owned Amazon
Echo Dot. That’s right, every dorm room at Saint Louis University comes
equipped with an Echo Dot that students can use as one of the universities
initiatives to improve student efficiency.
What are
virtual assistants?
Virtual
assistants sometimes called artificial intelligence (AI) assistants are
applications that understand user voice commands and based on these commands,
complete tasks for the user. Amazon Alexa is a prime example of a virtual
assistant. You activate the device by saying the command word “Alexa” and then
tell it to perform a task. Amazon’s virtual assistant is a cloud-based service,
meaning that it has the ability to connect to multiple systems and sources of
data at once to retrieve the information needed by the user.
So why are cloud-based virtual assistants important to us college students?
So why are cloud-based virtual assistants important to us college students?
A couple
weeks back I was in a meeting with the University of Northern Iowa's Director
of Residence Life, Nick Rafanello. Rafanello had brought up something about
another university in the Midwest installing Amazon Echo Dots in the residence
halls, and this peaked my interest. The first question I had, which school did
this and the second, why would they go to the extent of placing an Echo Dot in
all residence halls rooms? I had to find out.
Photo: Saint Louis University
Saint
Louis University (SLU), a private school in Missouri is the first Midwest
school to partner with Amazon to put 2,300+ Echo Dots in the residence halls
and university-owned apartments. The idea was to get residents connected to the
university by using technology to enhance their educational experience. SLU has
“a custom SLU skill deployed on each
device, students will get instant answers to more than 100 questions specific
to the University — from ‘What time does the library close tonight?’ to ‘Where
is the registrar’s office?’” In other words, SLU skill, as SLU calls it, is
capable of answering university specific questions on top of Alexa’s normal
capabilities (minus some personalization limitations, as well as playing music
over the device). This concept blew me away! Imagine if here at the University
of Northern Iowa our residence hall rooms and apartments came equipped with an
Echo Dot. I know I would be calling out “Alexa” all the time to have her answer
questions for me, whether it be asking about dining hall hours or even having
her set an alarm for me. All in all, installing the device in residence halls
is changing the college experience.
The question that’s on everyone's mind. Should we be
concerned about privacy while using Amazon’s virtual assistant?
Obviously in the news as of recently we’ve been hearing a lot
of concerns surrounding privacy with Amazon Alexa. Amazon uses a cloud-based
virtual assistant, so the user's information has to go somewhere in the cloud,
it doesn’t just disappear. Let’s start with how Alexa works.
When Alexa detects the wake word (“Alexa”) she will begin
streaming audio to the cloud, Alexa “uses your voice recordings and other
information, including from third-party services, to answer your questions,
fulfill your requests, and improve your experience.” Your voice recordings
don’t go away on their own, Amazon actually stores them to enhance your Alexa
experience; however, you can go through the process of deleting each individual
voice recording once in the Alexa app. Alexa is designed to get smarter with
every use. She collects information once the wake word is detected and “adapts
to your speech pattern, vocabulary, and personal preferences.” It’s quite a
useful capability unless you have privacy concerns and I think many informed
users are very conscientious of the data they’re willing to share.
Looking back at SLU, they promise their administrators cannot
access anything said to Alexa. Amazon promises the only information
organizations can see and control is which skills are enabled on the device as
well as the room the device is assigned to. Alexa begins recording when the
wake word is used to start the device. Leaving many students living in SLU
residence halls and university-owned apartments weary of using the Echo Dot.
Would you have used the Echo Dot in your residence hall room or apartment at
college? Comment down below.
Posted by: Kate O’Dell
Reference:
Very interesting read! I know currently the University has a no-AI policy in the dorms (not an official policy but they are blocked off the Wi-Fi making them effectively useless) and Panther eSports is really taking the lead on changing that, perhaps University-owned AI systems are a great middle-ground between these two concepts. This way students can get the benefits of an AI without opening up the network to potential security risks.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Amazon Echos and Dots are always listening, while not recording, a simple modification could turn them into great recording devices. While I would never suspect the institution from doing this, individual students could modify these devices without being detected, posing a massive potential privacy concern for students who opt into this program.