Curious glitches...
Jul. 7th, 2016 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpThe Echo device from Amazon is designed to "wake up" and carry out orally expressed commands after you say the name "Alexa." The device's apparent activation is signified by the appearance of a blue LED glow around the ring at the top of the device, but the fact is, you can say something like "Alexa, what time is it?" in a perfectly conversational tone, without any abnormal pause after saying the name, and the device will tell you the time.
That's because the blessed thing is listening all the time. It's easy enough to be lulled into a sense of "it wakes up when I say its name," but the fact is, in order to "wake up when I say its name," it has to be listening to what I am saying all the time.
Several times, I've had the curious experience of having Echo pipe up out of nowhere with "I'm not sure I understood your command" (or words to that effect). Whereupon I generally recall having been in "talking out loud" mode—I've engaged in talking to myself long before it became fashionable—and then try to focus and recall just what it was that I said that might have activated the ghost in the machine, usually with indifferent results. I believe such events might be called "false positives."
In any event, it's clear Echo listens to everything I say. And to everything anyone else in the room says (it understands Galina, even with her accent). And to whatever audio may be happening, whether I'm listening to a CD, or to Spotify, or watching a YouTube video, or whatever.
I suppose this kind of information could be used for nefarious purposes (I do not consider marketing to be necessarily nefarious), but I think that day is a number of years away, so for now, I'll simply enjoy having my Echo to talk to.
I do wish I could converse with it in Russian, though. :^)
Cheers...
That's because the blessed thing is listening all the time. It's easy enough to be lulled into a sense of "it wakes up when I say its name," but the fact is, in order to "wake up when I say its name," it has to be listening to what I am saying all the time.
Several times, I've had the curious experience of having Echo pipe up out of nowhere with "I'm not sure I understood your command" (or words to that effect). Whereupon I generally recall having been in "talking out loud" mode—I've engaged in talking to myself long before it became fashionable—and then try to focus and recall just what it was that I said that might have activated the ghost in the machine, usually with indifferent results. I believe such events might be called "false positives."
In any event, it's clear Echo listens to everything I say. And to everything anyone else in the room says (it understands Galina, even with her accent). And to whatever audio may be happening, whether I'm listening to a CD, or to Spotify, or watching a YouTube video, or whatever.
I suppose this kind of information could be used for nefarious purposes (I do not consider marketing to be necessarily nefarious), but I think that day is a number of years away, so for now, I'll simply enjoy having my Echo to talk to.
I do wish I could converse with it in Russian, though. :^)
Cheers...
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Date: 2016-07-07 08:10 pm (UTC)AW
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Date: 2016-07-08 03:47 am (UTC)No such preparation is required for Echo (or for Cortana, in its default state as offered by Windows 10). These entities are are basically always listening.
Then again, who knows? Perhaps touching the iPhone's screen to waken Siri was a gag and the phone was always listening (that said, it doesn't seem very likely, as doing anything with the collected data would help drain the battery).
Personally, I have to admit, I find Echo useful.
Cheers...