We live in an age where artificial intelligence is coming for everything — from accountancy to software development. There were, until recently, a few domains we assumed would remain stubbornly human. Private pleasure, for instance.
You might imagine that the fully automated bedroom is still some way off. No chrome-plated interlopers humming quietly at the foot of the bed just yet. But a quieter revolution has already arrived, and it doesn't announce itself with fanfare. It comes instead in small, discreet packages, available from a certain ubiquitous online retailer, at roughly the cost of a short taxi ride — and, allegedly, capable of getting you to your destination rather faster.
For around twenty pounds, there is now a growing range of connected devices equipped with so-called bio-feedback sensors. These adaptive systems promise to learn, in their own algorithmic fashion, how best to respond — adjusting output in real time to optimise the experience. One might say they are attentive in ways that many human counterparts, given a lifetime of practice, never quite manage to be.
"It said it was learning my preferences. I did not expect it to be this thorough."
All of which might sound like the sort of thing best left to late-night advertising and raised eyebrows. But this is, after all, a privacy technology site — and the joke has a darker punchline.
Because in an era where data brokers hoover up every conceivable fragment of personal information, the notion of exporting intensely intimate biometric data to a remote, opaque system should give pause. These devices are not merely performing a function; they are observing, measuring, and — quite possibly — recording. Patterns of response, timing, intensity: a detailed map of preference that is far more revealing than a browsing history or a shopping basket.
And once that data exists, the familiar questions follow. Where is it stored? Who has access to it? How securely is it handled? And, perhaps most importantly, how long before it becomes just another commodity in the vast and largely invisible marketplace of personal information?
It is, after all, not the sort of detail most people would willingly add to their already extensive digital dossier. Yet here we are, living in a moment where convenience, novelty, and curiosity can quietly outweigh caution.
Artificial intelligence may or may not replace your job. But it is already learning rather a lot about you — sometimes in ways you might not have anticipated, and in contexts you might have preferred to keep entirely your own.
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