It is a scary thought that technology has increased to such a stage that we have artificially intelligence to converse with in our own living rooms to help us with every day life. George Orwell’s book 1984 seems to becoming more and more real as technology continually progresses.

As it stands, there are two systems that are offering artificial intelligence in the comfort of your home. The Google Home, which we have briefly looked at, and the Amazon Echo/Echo Dot. For the majority of people, the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot will be the more appealing product to purchase: simply because it went onto the market sooner and is cheaper than the Google Home (the Echo Dot is for that matter). However, is it as good as Google Home and a match at artificial intelligence?

What is the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot

Just like Google Home, the Echo and Echo dot are speakers and microphones with software that has Wifi to connect to the internet. Upon requesting assistance, the artificial intelligence software will use the internet to answer you query and that is it!

The difference between the Echo and the Echo Dot is the speaker. The Echo contains a much larger speaker that can truly provide immersive responses and music playback. Whereas, the Echo Dot is a lot smaller providing a speaker with only limited loudness and clarity – for those wanting the Echo Dot because it is cheaper, it would be worth buying another speaker and connecting the Echo Dot up to it with an AUX cable.

The initial problem with the Amazon Echo range, though (and one Google Home will face too), is that to truly get the most out of the product, you need to have a smart home already. By ‘smart’, your home should have things that the Amazon Echo range can control such as:

• Lightning such as with the Philips Hue
• Smart thermostat such as a Nest or Hive
• Smart TV

This does not mean the Echo range is useless without these smart home appliances. For one, the main thing about the Amazon Echo range that is so effective is that it can answer pretty much any question without you having to get your phone, tablet or laptop out and having to Google search for the answer yourself. For example, if you was watching Manchester United play football and wondered how many goals Wayne Rooney has scored for them, you could simply ask and the Echo range will speak aloud the answer.

There are some drawbacks, though, with the main looking at security. There is a button which will completely turn off power to the microphone, which will give a lot of people some rest. However, if the Echo range was somehow hacked, anyone could listen to you inside your home. As well as this, the Echo range automatically records when you interact with it, which some people will not like.

Ultimately, I think it is something everyone will invest in either sooner or later. The benefits of such an artificial intelligence system for your home far outweigh the cons, making it something that potentially will be at the top of many people’s wishlists for Christmas.