The idea of interacting with machinery, person to, er, microchip, is an old one. Goes far back even beyond microchips. Played to comedic effect in Buck Rogers and Star Wars and WarGames and all manner of sci-fi literature even across the decades.
No newsflash, but we want machines to do our bidding, to be responsive, to be our sounding boards.
So: Long live the voice-activated speaker. You know something’s going right when everyone is getting into the act. And you know that Amazon is doing something right when everyone is getting into its act.