Check out anatomyof.ai , It does a brilliant job at exposing the complexity and great cost involved in switching on your lights using your voice.
Alexa, like many other systems we interaction with these days is an endpoint or listening device for a learning organisation whose business model is based on gathering and exploiting human behaviour and knowledge for commercial gain The other side of this particular value exchange for users is a new way to interact with technology without any real improvement or benefit over current digital experiences except accessibility – which should not be downplayed – but really, humans are not currently getting any
Its worth noting here that Google, the #1 behemoth in AI and machine learning generally provide genuinely useful tools and technology in return for your interactions and data