An android child struggles to control his emotions. Robots threaten to take away human jobs. And a voice-activated device ponders its own existence.
These dark themes were explored by this year's Super Bowl commercials, with brands such as TurboTax, Olay and Sprint capitalizing on fears that technology is encroaching on our lives. The unspoken subject of many of the ads: Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa, an increasingly ubiquitous digital assistant sold by one of the world's most powerful companies.
Amazon had its own commercial, where it poked fun at Alexa. The ad featured rejected ideas for the technology — including a microwave, dog collar and hot tub — and even depicted a massive power outage triggered by Alexa.