华盛顿邮报 智能音箱Echo造成的负面影响

Alexa Juliana Ard is a foreign video editor for The Post, and she's been reporting about how smart speakers can negatively affect people like her.

Alexa Juliana Ard是“华盛顿邮报”的一名外国视频编辑，她一直在报道智能音箱如何对像她这样的人产生负面影响。

I want you to go back to 2014, to about this time of year when all the online shopping gears up before the holidays. Imagine it's in November.

我想让你们回到2014年，回到每年的这个时候，所有的网上购物都在节日前启动。 假设现在是11月。

You open your e-mail and see an article from TechCrunch about this new home device called an Amazon Echo.

你打开电子邮件，看到一篇来自TechCrunch的文章，是关于这款名为Amazon Echo的新型家用设备的。

Amazon surprised everyone today and launched a new hardware product called Echo.

亚马逊今天出乎所有人的意料，推出了一款名为Echo的新硬件产品。

It's a smart speaker from Amazon that's a personal assistant.

这是亚马逊的智能音箱，是个人助理。

You can look up anything online, play music, and turn on your lights, all with your voice.

你可以在网上查找任何东西，播放音乐，开灯，所有的一切都是通过你的声音实现。

Can do things like answer questions, where answers are generated from Wikipedia.

可以做一些事情，比如回答问题，这些答案来自维基百科。

To do all these things, the device's artificial intelligence needs to be woken up.

要实现所有这些事情，需要唤醒该设备的人工智能。

So Amazon gives this A.I. a name you can call it.

所以亚马逊给这个人工智能起了个名字。

And here's the crazy thing -- it's your name.

最疯狂的是，用了你的名字。

How many feet are in a mile?

一英里有多少英尺?

Buy more deodorant¹.

买更多的除臭剂。

It's weird². Maybe you feel a little flattered, but this is just the next tech gadget³ and probably won't last.

这很奇怪。也许你觉得有点荣幸，但这只是下一个科技小玩意，很可能不会持续太久。

Amazon just tried launching a phone a couple months ago, and it wasn't going well.

几个月前，亚马逊刚刚推出了一款手机，但进展并不顺利。

The Fire Phone tries to be fun and delightful⁴, but too often, it's just complicated.

Fire Phone试图变得有趣和令人愉快，但太多时候，它只是复杂。

Then time passes. You visit a friend's place for a dinner party.

然后过去了一段时间。你去朋友家参加晚宴。

And you introduce yourself.

然后介绍你自己。

Sorry. I didn't get that.

对不起。我没听懂。

They use your name to tell it to shut up.

他们用你的名字叫它闭嘴。

Your friend asks to call you by a nickname or your last name or just as "they who shall not be named."

你的朋友要求称呼你的昵称或姓氏，或者就像“那些不能被提及的人”那样。

More time passes. The Amazon Echo isn't fading, but getting more popular, adding more features.

更多的时间流逝了。亚马逊Echo并没有衰落，而是越来越受欢迎，增加了更多的功能。

You have a meeting at work.

你上班要开会。

People go around the table introducing themselves.

人们围着桌子作自我介绍。

A guy says your name, and then, in monotone, says...

一个人说了你的名字，然后，用单调的声音说……

How's the weather outside?

外面天气怎么样?

You start using a different name when ordering food.

点餐的时候你开始用不同的名字。

It's not worth hearing the same realization⁵, the same jokes again and again.

发出同样的声音，讲同样的笑话，一遍又一遍地听，是不值得的。

Play my favorite song.

播放我最喜欢的歌曲。

Turn on the TV.

打开电视。

How many feet are in a mile? How many feet are in a mile?How many feet are in a mile?

一英里有多少英尺? 一英里有多少英尺? 一英里有多少英尺?

You start to think maybe it's something you've done, because there's no way everyone could be so committed to this joke.

你开始认为这可能是你做过的事，因为不可能每个人都这么热衷于这个笑话。

Eventually, you can't help but take it personally.

最终，你会情不自禁地对号入座。

All these things really happen to these people.

所有这些事情都发生在这些人身上。

1 deodorant   

adj.除臭的；n.除臭剂

参考例句：

• She applies deodorant to her armpits after she showers.沐浴后，她在腋下涂上除臭剂。
• Spray deodorant and keep the silk garments dry before dressing.在穿衣之前，洒涂防臭剂并保持干燥。

2 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

3 gadget   

n.小巧的机械，精巧的装置，小玩意儿

参考例句：

• This gadget isn't much good.这小机械没什么用处。
• She has invented a nifty little gadget for undoing stubborn nuts and bolts.她发明了一种灵巧的小工具用来松开紧固的螺母和螺栓。

4 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

5 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。