truly curious what sort of cost benefit analysis results in: I am comfortable with inviting a rapacious corporation into my private life.
There are a lot of things that get much, much easier from an accessibility standpoint if someone can operate a device by voice, instead of having to maneuver next to a switch, panel, or button.
Getting next to the button can be much more difficult if it means getting into a wheelchair, fitting your prosthetic, or having to find help because it's positioned too high or in an area that's too narrow.
Additionally, you can say a single phrase and turn off all lights in your dwelling, regardless of room. Minor win for able-bodied folks who might take only a minute or two to walk the house, big win for someone less capable.
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I'm technically capable enough to have removed Amazon/Google anyways with HomeAssistant in combination with WIS (https://github.com/toverainc/willow-inference-server) and Willow autocorrect (https://github.com/toverainc/willow-autocorrect).
Which gets me most of the things I cared about from an Echo without ever having anything leave my LAN. But it's a real PITA the setup.
There is basically zero middleground in this industry between "Amazon/Google have a permanent microphone that listens to everything you do" and "You have to manually flash ESP32s and configure servers".
Sadly, I don't see this ever happening due to the insane number of regulations you'd have to satisfy and the major players in this space only doing it to collect PII.
When a relative of mine got hospitalized for a laryngectomy, post op she obviously couldn’t talk since her voice box was gone.
She was either expected to learn to speak with her oesophagus ( doable but many people fail and it takes months ) or … remain mute.
That’s when I introduced her to the wonders of text to speech. Soon after she was the star of the department, which had never considered this !
Market opportunity for local "home electronics contractor" network.
and
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5835 (Updated version of the above)
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Neither are particularly awesome as far as devices go, but they're cheap enough for what they are, and they're the targeted hardware for willow (https://heywillow.io/hardware/)
You won't be playing music with them, and the audio pickup isn't as good as an Echo. But they work and my family/folks who enter my home don't get recorded automatically by Google/Amazon.
It's very, very similar hardware to what Home Assistant is trying to use (ESP32 in a box with some mics).