ALEXA’S GOT A HUNCH: The human decisions behind programming emotion-sensing and caregiving into digital assistants

Abstract

The ‘Internet of Emotions’, which aims to recognise, mimic and respond to human emotions through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), is transforming how caregiving is performed in the home. Amazon’s digital home voice assistant ‘Alexa’ is a case in point. In 2018, Amazon launched an Alexa feature known as ‘Hunches’, which aims to pre-empt a user’s moods, needs and desires through machine learning, in order to recommend appropriate products, solutions or courses of action. In this chapter, we draw on media reports and emerging literature to analyse and surface the humans and human decisions behind this method of mimicking and responding to human emotions in an attempt to replicate and transform the meaning and provision of caregiving. We adopt a techno-feminist lens to explore how socially empathetic devices, chatbots and AI are designed to reinforce the commodification of emotions and caregiving. Following Judy Wajcman (2017: 123), we are concerned that features such as Hunches 'mistake the appearance of care with real empathy and genuine personal interaction'. We outline our concerns with how those in the fields of AI and robotics frame emotional and social needs as universally experienced. This has other potential ramifications, potentially providing unfounded confidence in Amazon’s algorithms, which are largely generated by the male-dominated field of AI. Indeed, Amazon is an oligarchic international company that’s agenda extends far beyond the provision of care, and is centred on global retail and other markets.