I have so far been able to resist the siren charms of Alexa, a stubborn piece of resistance that raises eyebrows and provokes head shaking amongst the younger generations. I am even less likely to have the gadget if the latest plans for it emanating from Amazon come into fruition.

According to Rohit Prasad, head scientist for Alexa, speaking at the MARS conference in Las Vegas, new AI-based technology has now allowed them the Voice assistant to impersonate someone based upon a recording of less than a minute long. In a touching video, Prasad showed a child requesting a bedtime story to be read by Alexa using the voice of their grandparent who had moved on to parts even Amazon cannot reach (for the time being, at least).

While that may be a heart-warming, if slightly disturbing, use of an unnecessary bit of technology, I wonder how voice recognition software would react to Alexa mimicking the voice of a real person. We may all want to be remembered in some way when we have met the Grim Reaper, but I am not sure that I want my voice to be at the beck and call of anyone too lazy to switch on the lights, request a piece of music or tell the time.

O tempora, o morses, as Cicero once said. Now I wonder what his voice sounded like!