Tech companies lean into AI at home

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled its new Echo devices, including Alexa-powered speakers and AI-infused features. Amazon wants AI to see and hear more of your home. The company on Wednesday unveiled its new Echo devices, including Alexa-powered speakers, an AI-infused digital picture frame, smart alarm clocks, and a new smart display for managing the home, all running the latest version of Alexa+. The lineup shows increasing personalization of AI devices, whose makers are finding fresh ways to collect and analyze customer data. Amazon’s smart speaker recognizes who in the family is talking and plays their playlist, not their sibling’s. The alarm clock uses ultrasound to track breathing and improve sleep. Another feature lets users build a 3D map of their house, then pull in Ring cameras to monitor people and cars moving around outside — the kind of spatial data home robots will eventually need, too. Google, Apple, and reportedly OpenAI are also racing to infuse home hardware with AI. But there may be limits to how much of it people want — or need — in their house. Some parts of life are better left un-optimized.