Uncovered: 1,000 phrases that incorrectly trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant:
As Alexa, Google Home, Siri, and other voice assistants have become fixtures in millions of homes, privacy advocates have grown concerned that their near-constant listening to nearby conversations could pose more risk than benefit to users. New research suggests the privacy threat may be greater than previously thought.
The findings demonstrate how common it is for dialog in TV shows and other sources to produce false triggers that cause the devices to turn on, sometimes sending nearby sounds to Amazon, Apple, Google, or other manufacturers. In all, researchers uncovered more than 1,000 word sequences—including those from Game of Thrones, Modern Family, House of Cards, and news broadcasts—that incorrectly trigger the devices.
“The devices are intentionally programmed in a somewhat forgiving manner, because they are supposed to be able to understand their humans,” one of the researchers, Dorothea Kolossa, said. “Therefore, they are more likely to start up once too often rather than not at all.”
[...] Examples of words or word sequences that provide false triggers include
- Alexa: “unacceptable,” “election,” and “a letter”
- Google Home: “OK, cool,” and “Okay, who is reading”
- Siri: “a city” and “hey jerry”
- Microsoft Cortana: “Montana”
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @03:13AM (1 child)
And AI can't listen. How many YouTube videos removed after their AI mis-transcribed "e-girl" as a racial slur? These AIs are easier to trigger than SJWs.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @04:28AM
AIs are programmed, SJWs are... programmed.
(Score: 1) by Zinnia Zirconium on Sunday July 05 2020, @03:50AM (2 children)
I wish the microphone could be muted by voice command.
Seriously just mute the fukken thing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @04:37AM
Another fix is to unplug the thing, and let it gather dust on a shelf.
I know that it will supposedly improve over time given more work on Amazon, Google, etc.'s end, but it never seemed that useful to me when I tried it out. Just a gimmick, or a music player.
If it can understand a crackhead or an extremely distracted person musing out loud without bothering to form hyperspecific verbal commands, then the technology will be useful. Until then, I don't care.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @04:49AM
Unacceptable! Order two tons of creamed corn! [xkcd.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @05:36AM
Dental Floss! Just me and my pygmy pony, riding off, into the sunset of Montana! (in memoriam, Frank Zappa.)
(Score: 5, Touché) by BsAtHome on Sunday July 05 2020, @05:39AM
"Okay, who is reading a letter about the unacceptable election in a city in Montana?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:24AM (1 child)
My Amazon device has a mute button. Keep it muted until you want to interact, then press the button and then ask your question like "Alexa, why are millennials so stupid?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @01:25PM
- Hey Jerry!
- Hey Kramer!
- I ORDERed 1000 POUNDS OF WOOD DUST
- Ok? Hey, did you CONFIRM the tickets to that show Elaine wants to go to?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @01:42PM
all the passive triggers used by law enforcement, state and quasi-state agents and anybody else willing to pay to have a "bug" blown into the device with the next auto-update then?
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday July 05 2020, @05:12PM
This. This is a demonstrator of how weak technology shortcuts are bad.
After all those decades of strong syntax languages in computers, what the marketable commerce delivers? A weak imitation of a stupid neural network.
What is really needed is a true command language for formulating commands exactly, backed by a strong voice spectrum analysis for identification and authorization.
A mil-grade tech. With keywords, declarators, definitors, procedures and macro statements.
But first, we need to overcome a historical dogma imposed by freaky functionalists on us since the 60's, stating falsely that imperative languages are bad.
Please, note the fact any ancient Cobol program could be transferred by voice. And you can even edit a Basic program by voice.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @05:09AM
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/listening [smbc-comics.com]