In the hardware sense, smart speakers are speakers equipped with microphones that need to be charged by electricity and connected to the internet. Normal speakers don’t have microphones.
As they are objects connected to other objects via the internet, smart speakers are part of the Internet of Things (IoT). They work by voice command; they do not have keyboard input. Precisely because of this, they can be used by people with disabilities, less literate people, and by people who have more difficulty in accessing the internet via mobile phones or computers, such as the elderly.
Some models have screens to display in video format the answers to questions asked by users. But the most popular models only respond to user requests via audio.
The devices are equipped with voice assistants.
Smart speakers can answer questions, play music, “read” news, activate appliances, trigger reminders, and more, by voice command. As soon as the user asks a question or requests an action, the system turns the voice input into text, then into data, and then returns the path to answer the user’s request in voice (or video) output.
Voice assistants use Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Algorithms to try to accurately fulfil the user’s request.
The first smart speaker, Echo, was launched by Amazon in 2014. The device became popularly known by the name of the device’s voice assistant: Alexa. The timeline of smart speakers and voice assistants overlaps, as they are attached to each other. Currently, in the Western market, three brands produce smart speakers: Amazon, Google, and Apple. Some publishers are experimenting with the use of smart speakers and voice assistants for news. It is still an emerging field, but as we find them in our daily lives in subjects such as cars, kitchen appliances and other, they may be a way for journalism to thrive.
