Sure, it first ruined the name Amazon.
Exactly!
Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
141–150 of 153 posts
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Allowing Alexa devices to respond to the more generic "computer" is a not-insignificant win for Amazon IMO. Though it can get a little confused when I'm watching Star Trek variants on a nearby TV...
Try setting it to "amazon" and then watch a video about AWS or something similar. "Echo" is the 'safest' one for me.
I wish I could use Echo. I have to spell words by phone using the phonetic alphabet at least once a week. And E (Echo) triggers Alexa often.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#143Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because different words have very different best potential performance characteristics when used as wake words. We would have liked to enable fully custom wake words, but it would have led to bad user experiences with the device either failing to wake up too often (false negatives) or having too many false positives or both. So we compromised by enabling more than one, but not full choice.
I just wanted to let you know that you have caused great distress to my aunt, my daughter and my wider family through you and your colleagues thoughtless actions. I hope someday you, and Amazon as a whole, gets its comeuppance.
Please don't personally attack people.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#145I wish these companies wouldn't anthropomorphize the systems so much. I catch my mother calling Siri "her", and my wife calls Google Assistant "her" because she has it set to a feminine voice. I try to remind our small children that it's just a computer, there is no person behind it. It's important, because I've noticed that folks who humanize these assistants start having expectations of their capabilities that far…
i heard there are some parents that make their kids say "thank you" or "please" to their voice assistants. that really bothers me for some reason. its like putting "please" at the end of a google search. its just plain illogical
I remember this coming up in a Star Trek episode where a character would say 'please' and 'thank you' to the ship computer.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#146Yes.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am acquaintances with a Siri. She's seems like a nice person, but since she works in a service industry I bet she's tired of hearing "Hey, Siri" all the time. If I was her, I'd ask for permission to not wear a name tag.
Has she considered changing the name on the tag, just at work? Just put "Jane" or something generic, or "Sarah" so it sounds similar. But yeah, it unfair that she has to be the one to change.
At one camp where I was a counselor, all the staff had made up names. I guess it was so we wouldn't get tired of hearing our real names. Having worked at several camps as a teen/young adult, I wish all had done this.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is so out of touch. If you want people to simply roll their eyes and ignore your words completely, keep on espousing arguments like that. Alexa, Siri and co. do have legitimate use cases for people, even if they may not be useful for -you-.
What are these legitimate use cases? Controls for people with disabilities?
I 100% support disability augments. I don't see why the processing can't be localized to a device.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#149Related: Being married to an actual Siri made it easy for us to rule out one of the home automation platforms. (I asked, but somehow she didn’t feel like changing her name.)
> I asked, but somehow she didn’t feel like changing her name. That's nuts. It's just a bit of paperwork!
And an expensive ad in the paper with an appearance before a judge in most of the US.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they can't possibly augment your life in a meaningful way Claims like this one seriously undermine the (worthwhile) privacy movement. Convenience and entertainment _are_ worthwhile uses of technology. Those of us with an understanding of privacy and surveillance technology might well make the judgement that certain forms of convenience and entertainment are not justified by the intrusion that they present - but to…
There's no reason the language model couldn't be stored locally. It doesn't need to be transmitting everything you say all the time to corporate HQ.
I have serious doubts that the storage and computation components necessary to do full TextToIntent locally would result in an economic product - but, regardless, that isn't a refutation of my point that "smart speakers do provide some value to the average user, and to pretend that they don't undermines the legitimate discussion about privacy".