So instead we need something that is fun and dysfunctional? Let's be honest, even with all the LLM tech, voice interfaces could never be more than a stop-gap before the user does reach for a screen. That's why smart speakers may have actually been at least very very very slightly successful, since at least they have hands-free timers/music/smart-home controls going for them.
The real problem is that tech produced by corporations, whose explicit goal is to minimize input labor/time/salaries and maximize revenue, does tend to slowly degenerate into repetitions of itself.
When software is treated as a handmade thing, it transcends its inherent value as a tool, it becomes an ornament, a sentimental object, a type of self-expression.
When you design software as a product, intent on copying your competitors exactly to satisfy the investors, even if that market niche is taken, software becomes boring.
You can build a culture out of trash, but it will only be a trash culture.
i mean, who doesn’t enjoy winning a lottery? now you can play every time you use your device!
(in all seriousness, voice devices are a crucial affordance or adaptation for some disabled users. i ordered one of these (somewhat impulsively i admit) to evaluate it for a family member with a neurodegenerative disease who uses alexa to a degree that seems almost insane to me but it allows him to navigate his daily activities.)
The real problem is that tech produced by corporations, whose explicit goal is to minimize input labor/time/salaries and maximize revenue, does tend to slowly degenerate into repetitions of itself.
When software is treated as a handmade thing, it transcends its inherent value as a tool, it becomes an ornament, a sentimental object, a type of self-expression.
When you design software as a product, intent on copying your competitors exactly to satisfy the investors, even if that market niche is taken, software becomes boring.
You can build a culture out of trash, but it will only be a trash culture.