Has voice control finally started speaking our language?

The success of Amazon's Echo proves that we are slowly coming to terms with talking to machines. How long before digital assistants can do more than just control our music, and start having meaningful conversations?

The problem with using the human voice to control computers is well known and well documented: it doesn't always work. You can find yourself adopting the aggressive tone of a belligerent tourist in a foreign land while digital assistants employ a range of apologetic responses ("I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that", "I'm sorry, I didn't understand the question"). We throw our arms up and complain about their shortcomings. Plenty of us have tried them, plenty of us have dismissed them as a waste of time.

Related: Introducing the Guardian skill for Alexa