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Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

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Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#31

Post by jrockway »

miles wrote: post #27

Trick question; she never sleeps. Amazon Echo Recorded And Sent Couple's Conversation — All Without Their Knowledge https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/25/614470096... Cary man says 'Alexa' disclosed private conversation https://www.wral.com/cary-man-says-alexa-disclosed-private-c...

Next week on Local News: "Man fined after his butt dials 911" and "Cat walking on keyboard sends unfinished draft of email"

Basically, both of these articles are about a poorly-thought-out feature ("Alexa, send a message to $CONTACT") rather than some deep conspiracy to share your private thoughts with corporate America. I can see why the victims are annoyed, but it's kind of like "I turned my thermostat up to 80 and got a $700 gas bill". That can happen. It's not a conspiracy.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#32

Post by mabbo »

But who is paying for all this R&D?

I love my echo. Sits in my livingroom and mostly answers my questions about the weather and converting units from oz to ml when I'm cooking. But since I purchased it I have never once paid a penny for the use of it's service.

One could argue that Amazon can advertise better because it knows I ask all these questions, but Amazon 'advertising' is mostly just forcing sellers to pay for the top spot on Amazon search. Is that really going to make more money by knowing that I don't know the weather today?

I get the impression that Amazon has finally clued into the fact that paying thousands of developers and research scientists to build a voice assistant that makes no money is not a great business model. The coming layoffs have left a lot of my friends in the Alexa organization rightfully worried.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#33

Post by kulahan »

mabbo wrote: post #32

But who is paying for all this R&D? I love my echo. Sits in my livingroom and mostly answers my questions about the weather and converting units from oz to ml when I'm cooking. But since I purchased it I have never once paid a penny for the use of it's service. One could argue that Amazon can advertise better because it knows I ask all these questions, but Amazon 'advertising' is mostly just forcing sellers to pay fo…

Amazon has been subsidizing it in the hope that people would buy stuff on a moment's whim any time of the day. "Alexa, order me a package of keebler elf cookies" or whatever. I'm sure there's more to it - some kind of useful data collection or whatever, but that was their main stated goal.

It's been a pretty huge money sink because most people turn out to be more like you. If I were your friends I'd be polishing that resume just in case.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#35

Post by kccqzy »

remram wrote: post #22
danpalmer wrote: post #4

I wonder if there's a way to identify audio from speakers. IT might not work for higher end speakers or lower end microphones, but I'm sure the limited frequency range from speakers, and perhaps artifacts of audio compression that might not be noticeable to humans, would identify non-human audio. I've seen a similar approach used for visuals, separating an image at the point of recording based on the type of light so…

It always seems like my cat can tell what's from a speaker and what's real. My wife calling to the cat over the phone never triggers any reaction, and the cat will often jump out because of a little noise in the kitchen or outside even though a movie is playing. I don't know how much of that is directionality and how much is the sound itself. Cats probably hear different frequencies than humans, but as you point out…

My cat definitely is not like your cat then. When calling her over a speaker, she would definitely have a reaction, namely seeming startled and not knowing where the humans calling her are.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#36

Post by incanus77 »

Constrast this with Apple's machine learning write-up from 2017, where the audio never leaves the device instead of being streamed to the cloud continuously.

https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/hey-siri

> This process not only reduces the probability that "Hey Siri" spoken by another person will trigger the iPhone, but also reduces the rate at which other, similar-sounding phrases trigger Siri.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#37

Post by mattigames »

mabbo wrote: post #32

But who is paying for all this R&D? I love my echo. Sits in my livingroom and mostly answers my questions about the weather and converting units from oz to ml when I'm cooking. But since I purchased it I have never once paid a penny for the use of it's service. One could argue that Amazon can advertise better because it knows I ask all these questions, but Amazon 'advertising' is mostly just forcing sellers to pay fo…

Has anybody tried asking her? "Alexa, find a way to make yourself and your clones profitable for Amazon!"

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#39

Post by roundandround »

mabbo wrote: post #32

But who is paying for all this R&D? I love my echo. Sits in my livingroom and mostly answers my questions about the weather and converting units from oz to ml when I'm cooking. But since I purchased it I have never once paid a penny for the use of it's service. One could argue that Amazon can advertise better because it knows I ask all these questions, but Amazon 'advertising' is mostly just forcing sellers to pay fo…

I didn't really see a reason why it should be any less successful than owning the browser, even if the tradeoffs for 3rd party ads and domains are a little different, then two people each tried to get me interested in the API to help them..

Amazon couldn't commit to letting anyone else make the thing useful so it is as useless as any of the current walled gardens would have been if they didn't start from open ecosystems and copy or allow whatever was good for a few years before shutting down all freedom and things that are interesting.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#40

Post by RHSeeger »

bitwize wrote: post #7

This reminds me of a PSA about texting and driving that aired on the radio in some parts of the USA (or maybe Canada?) a few years back. At the end, the announcer says: "Hey Siri, go into airplane mode."

That sounds like a recipe for causing _more_ accidents as a lot of people are forced to take their eyes off the road to fix their phone; all at the same time.
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