:00:00. > :00:00.Senators in the United States have confirmed Neil Gorsuch
:00:07. > :00:09.as a Supreme Court judge, following a year long political
:00:10. > :00:44.I'll run you a bath and play some relaxing music
:00:45. > :00:54.You 17,000 Tweets, 16 e-mails, and 105 fake news updates.
:00:55. > :01:01.Your boss sent an e-mail asking if he can stop
:01:02. > :01:06.There is a quinoa, sapphire, and ginger scallop bake
:01:07. > :01:11.I'm setting the oven to come on now and ordered a bottle
:01:12. > :01:14.of his favourite wine to be delivered at seven.
:01:15. > :01:15.And order some chocolate double-fudge cake.
:01:16. > :01:23.Shall I apply for a gym membership for you?
:01:24. > :01:26.Now, one day we really will have artificially intelligent personal
:01:27. > :01:29.assistants which we can really talk to and who know us better
:01:30. > :01:31.than we know ourselves, like Pretend Rory.
:01:32. > :01:46.Now, we're not there yet, but we are well on the way.
:01:47. > :01:49.What started in our phones with names like Siri,
:01:50. > :01:52.Cortana, and, uh, "OK, Google," can now control our homes
:01:53. > :02:00.And this week, Google's Home is launched in the UK.
:02:01. > :02:03.Now, it is all well having these intelligent personal assistants
:02:04. > :02:06.to which we can ask anything into their permanently open ears,
:02:07. > :02:10.but the more we use them, the more trust we are going to have
:02:11. > :02:17.OK, Google, is Obama planning a coup?
:02:18. > :02:26.For example, in his day job, the BBC's tech correspondent,
:02:27. > :02:29.Rory CJ, recently discovered that you can't always believe
:02:30. > :02:36.Obama may in fact be planning a communist coup at the end
:02:37. > :02:41.That fake news story just happened to be the top search result
:02:42. > :02:47.Well, Dan Simmons has been looking at some of the other unintended
:02:48. > :02:50.consequences of living with these devices.
:02:51. > :02:52.As we transition from controlling things through screens
:02:53. > :02:55.to using our voice, for those providing services things
:02:56. > :03:05.I'm in the BBC's Blue Room, a space where the broadcaster tests
:03:06. > :03:11.And with voice-assistance, it's not all going smoothly.
:03:12. > :03:20.Alexa, when's the next train to Manchester?
:03:21. > :03:22.Sorry, I didn't understand the question I heard.
:03:23. > :03:26.If you have to find out when the next train to Manchester
:03:27. > :03:29.is, right now you have to say, "open the National Rail App,
:03:30. > :03:32.tell me when the next train to Manchester is," and go
:03:33. > :03:34.through a number of steps to achieve that.
:03:35. > :03:43.You have to remember a number steps to find out content
:03:44. > :03:50.And that disadvantage applies to search results too.
:03:51. > :03:54.Up until now, websites aimed to be on the first page of results.
:03:55. > :03:56.With voice assistants, just one answer comes back.
:03:57. > :04:00.Fine if it's a right-wrong definitive answer, the ones that
:04:01. > :04:04.The moon is 384,400 kilometres from Earth.
:04:05. > :04:12.More controversial if you are looking for a product or service.
:04:13. > :04:14.For anyone else, how did you get to that position?
:04:15. > :04:17.Only one person can have the first spot.
:04:18. > :04:20.Everyone else will have to figure out what did they do,
:04:21. > :04:23.how do they work with Amazons and Googles to make sure
:04:24. > :04:26.their content and their results are there first.
:04:27. > :04:31.This is not the end of the world, it is just the end of competition
:04:32. > :04:39.Oxford University is home to one of the world's most influential
:04:40. > :04:41.thinkers when it comes to competition.
:04:42. > :04:44.If we use our assistants to buy stuff, Ariel believes there'll be
:04:45. > :04:55.consequences, and they won't be unintended ones.
:04:56. > :04:58.That shift from an on line environment to the digital helper,
:04:59. > :05:05.You have a helper that is voice-activated, you are one step
:05:06. > :05:07.further from the ability to look for outside options.
:05:08. > :05:10.Your ability to check whether the price you received
:05:11. > :05:14.You tell your helper, "order me one, two, three," and you just assume
:05:15. > :05:21.that the helper will serve your needs.
:05:22. > :05:23.The likelihood is that in a two-side market,
:05:24. > :05:25.the helper is actually serving the platform.
:05:26. > :05:27.Today, your assumption, our default assumption,
:05:28. > :05:32.is that the price you receive is the competitive price.
:05:33. > :05:34.And you're suggesting that it won't be?
:05:35. > :05:43.A walk down Oxford's Cornmarket Street reveals something
:05:44. > :06:16.the Professor believes won't be around much longer on line.
:06:17. > :06:18.Doing something like that will not help them find
:06:19. > :06:23.So we want to make sure we are focused on what they want.
:06:24. > :06:26.Amazon told us "There is lots of potential and room
:06:27. > :06:30.Our job is to innovate on behalf of the customer and then
:06:31. > :06:33.But perhaps what these home assistants are most useful
:06:34. > :06:36.for is what they are becoming most known for, and that's controlling
:06:37. > :06:47.Look, I know we have not seen each other,
:06:48. > :06:50.and you think I am crazy, but I was just passing by, and...
:06:51. > :07:00.Oh, wait, have you still got that stupid voice control thing,
:07:01. > :07:32.But the lights were real, even though the oven and the front
:07:33. > :07:36.door was faked a little bit by us to just show you what the potential
:07:37. > :07:39.is of this technology if it cannot recognise your voice.
:07:40. > :07:42.In actual fact, Amazon tell us the unlock feature for doors is not
:07:43. > :07:45.available on the Echo, and that may be the biggest
:07:46. > :07:49.admission there is that there is a lot to be done with security
:07:50. > :08:15.When computing power was limited, the text adventure that players
:08:16. > :08:17.head-scratching puzzles and mysteries, all brought to life
:08:18. > :08:19.by typing instructions into the game.
:08:20. > :08:23.But the reason that I've taken us on this journey down 32 kilobyte
:08:24. > :08:31.It's a game that I've been playing on this,
:08:32. > :08:35.And it's a title that reminds me of those old text adventures
:08:36. > :08:40.Leading you through the Abbey, Abbess approaches one
:08:41. > :08:49.Now, you might think playing a game on one of these is like trying
:08:50. > :08:59.Because the Echo, of course, lacks a screen, or any other way
:09:00. > :09:02.of interacting with it other than barking commands at it.
:09:03. > :09:05.But that is exactly how the game I'm about to play works.
:09:06. > :09:13.The player must solve a murder in a fantasy realm.
:09:14. > :09:17.The game plays like an interactive version of an audio book -
:09:18. > :09:26.you get a bit of dialogue, then it waits for a response.
:09:27. > :09:29.Surprisingly, it commands quite a bit of your attention,
:09:30. > :09:32.and it's quite a relaxing way to play a game, although that
:09:33. > :09:48.relaxing mood is shattered when you hear this...
:09:49. > :10:03.Would you like to talk to the Abbess now?
:10:04. > :10:21.As the action progresses, it can shatter the illusion
:10:22. > :10:24.and become increasingly frustration when it does not understand
:10:25. > :10:32.Which is obviously a bit of a problem for a game you play
:10:33. > :10:49.When it does work, though, Runescape on Echo is a fun
:10:50. > :10:53.It also points to the potential these devices have beyond reading
:10:54. > :10:55.at the weather to you or reciting rubbish jokes.
:10:56. > :11:20.Runescape is available by the Skill section of the Alexa app.
:11:21. > :11:29.That is it for this weak. Follow us on line. Thank you for your
:11:30. > :11:33.interactions with us on Twitter, which included changing the name of
:11:34. > :11:38.one person, the assistant. So thank you, Rory. Thank you for watching.
:11:39. > :11:40.We will see you soon.