Alexa is always listening. Maybe also recording

#1

Alexa, please stop spying on me.

Just read this rather unnerving article at Gizmodo. It begs the question: Since Alexa - and all other AI assistants out there - are always listening, waiting for the commands, are they also always recording the last seconds/minutes of everything it hears?

I understand that the often small devices can’t yet have everything they need inside, so our voice commands have to be sent to a far away server to be processed before sending back the correct response or action. They should only start sending our voice once we “start a conversation” by speaking a particular greeting such as “Hi Alexa” or “Hey, Siri”, right? Has anyone checked this is actually what happens? What about the amount of false positives? I know for a fact that Siri will think we are calling her every once in a while even when nothing remotely resembling “Hey, Siri” was spoken, and I heard similar stories with all AI assistants as well.

From Anker’s side, do they have any means of checking those false positives occurrences on their smart devices such as the Zolo Halo and Roav Viva? I know they can’t interfere with the process since it’s not their AI assistant, but maybe they have access to the information?

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The future is bright. It’s also a little frightening. Our devices already collect a huge amount of information on us without our knowledge. Now they are gaining smart ears and eyes.

What would be a good solution to prevent cases such as this? Maybe a harder wake-up call, maybe another layer of confirmation, maybe even the need for a physical confirmation before some commands are performed?

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#2

This is a concern but i think the bigger worry should be your cell phone especially if it has an AI assistant like Siri or Google Assistant they even make some with Alexa built in. We keep these devices by our side everywhere we go. These devices have been compromised and used as spy gear by governments and spy companies around the world.

I often notice when I’m talking about a particular random subjects related articles pop up in my Google news feed. :grimacing::grimacing::grimacing:

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#3

I think this is one of my main concerns about products like the Echo, HomePod, etc. They would have to be “attentively” waiting for a command. That makes me uneasy. This is probably why I haven’t invested in products like these.

#4

Just don’t keep them in the bedroom :joy:

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#5

It’s the same on phones/tablets at least with Google Assistant

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#6

True. That’s why I have my “Hey Siri” turned off.

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#7

I read a while back that amazon echo devices have 2 chips. one is a chip with an extremely low memory capacity (it can only recognize and process either ONE of the trigger words at a time, alexa or echo), and the 2nd more powerful chip that actually does the full processing and execution of the task.

This is why we cant set the trigger word to a random word or to both “alexa” and “echo” at the same time. So once the device’s first chip hears “hey alexa” it will then trigger the 2nd chip to start listening and processing. but without the first chip, the second wont start.

I’m not sure if others non-amazon devices have a similar set up…if I can find where I read this ^ i’ll update my post