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Alexa, Can We Trust You?

Atlantic Magazine. Used with permission.
Roberto Parada

What do we expect from our virtual assistants and what happens when we let them be teacher, therapist, and friend? Journalist Judith Shulevitz joins us to talk about how much we should trust Alexa.

RadioWest divider.

Journalist Judith Shulevitz realized something strange was happening when she confessed to Alexa that she was lonely. Shulevitz says that’s something she wouldn’t even say aloud to husband, and it brought up a lot of questions about our relationship with artificial intelligence. What exactly do we expect our virtual assistants to do for us and what happens to our brains when we let them be teacher, therapist, and friend? Shulevitz joins us Wednesday to talk about how much we should trust Alexa.

Read Judith Shulevitz's article Alexa, Can We Trust You?in the November issue of The Atlantic.

Watch the demo video of Google's Duplex. In our conversation, Shulevitz explained the questions raised by a virtual assistant that can call restaurants and hair dressers and interact with humans without the human knowing they're talking to a machine.

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
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