We've had the smart phones. We’ve had the smart tablets. Now, we’re facing the phenomena of smart speakers - a wireless speaker with an embedded voice command system. Products such as the Amazon’s Alexa, Apple Homepod and now the Google Assistant are dominating the smart home market.

These devices represent the infant stages of domestically living with AI. To date, the technology is relatively primitive. Such commands are limited to streaming music, tuning in the radio, reading audiobooks, answering trivia questions, set timers and other basic services.

However, they will evolve rapidly. These devices are essentially an amalgamation of lots and lots data. They love data. They consume data. They will evolve rapidly because we are constantly feeding them. Literally. What people are unaware of is the fact these technologies are always listening. Regardless of whether you are interactive with the device, anything you say (that is in the reach of its audio capacity) is recorded and stored with its creator.

Improvements to the smart speaker occur from gathering, evaluating and digesting as much data as possible. Thus, it becomes a virtuous cycle; the devices indirectly improve themselves, through their function, considering they are constantly listening to you. Currently, these improvements are made by the device remitting data to its creator: adding data to the cloud; re-manufacturing the device to make it more sophisticated and intuitive, and then placing the new model on the market.

Tim Cook states in a recent interview that ‘We’ve reached a stage now in which more information about you is known online and on your phone, than in your home’. He distinguishes two prominent repositories for personal information: your home and your digital network. The smart speaker harnesses the two. It is closely attuned to your intimate life at home, whilst simultaneously connecting your digital life on the web. In other words, it is excellent in unmasking the truths of your life.

The inevitable next stage of advancement is when these devices can improve themselves there and then. This will be place them at the forefront of personalization. This is when artificial intelligence can truly be regarded as intelligent – rather than just a computerized program – as an internal ability and desire to becoming more intelligent is a form of rational intelligence per se.

Also, these devices are not in isolation. They interconnect to day-to-day services and other technologies such as your car, your garage and your phone. They’re not only going to become more personalized and intuitive, but they will become ubiquitous. Soon, it seems, we will be living a real life ‘Big Brother’.

I’ve tried to maintain an impartial standpoint because we have no idea what the future holds. I also have no idea where I stand. I seem to be stuck in this paradoxical state; unburdening all your information to technology seems both liberating and incarcerating. My intuition is screaming cynicism whilst my rationale envisions a convenient utopia.

For the moment, we should be aware about both the mass and content of what we are willing to expose. Many suggest it’s too late – we’ve already surrendered, and they already know too much. Yet what this will induce, however, is uncertain. Only time will tell.