[dgzl]

I understand the utility, I had a friend with a HomePod who used Siri for everything and I became jealous of how smoothly he used it to his benefit. I just don't see how in the future my voice is going to be protected. If I don't use it, they'll probably still have my voice.

[wenc]

Re: voice -- yep, you and every celebrity -- it's already possible to synthesize voices from a small sample.

https://www.descript.com/lyrebird-ai

Alexa can already talk like Samuel L Jackson.

https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-L-Jackson-celebrity-voice/dp/B...

It's a risk, but to me it's also a part of living in this century. Human voice impersonators have always existed. When Photoshop became a phenomenon, everybody knew that photographs could be manipulated. SFX departments have always been able to produce fake scenes -- and now with deep learning, more people are able to do it (albeit somewhat badly). Not advocating that anyone feeds training data to voice assistants, but in the end it's a personal decision based on what you value.

For me, it's impossible to uninvent technology, so all we can do is to manage the risks.

[dgzl]

So you're suggesting I embrace the tech?

I think I'll do this. I don't feel like I can reasonably protect myself from data-snooping companies, whether I use their products or not.

[wenc]

If it fits with your values and are ok with giving up some (but not all) privacy, sure.