It’ll be really good at telling people to shut the fuck up if it’s using my data for training.
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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These types of projects are driven by metrics, and teams have some kind of quota/goal that they need to reach by a certain date to keep the project on schedule. Bonuses or job security may be on the line here, and so you may see some desperate employees "going the extra mile" to reach their goals.
Relatedly, Alexa's voice activation sensitivity is essentially a tunable number. It can be changed to be more sensitive, so that it will activate more easily (e.g. maybe you say "Alex" instead of "Alexa"). The people who control this are likely on the team with that deadline, so the incentives are there to lower this value in order to collect more data by recording personal conversations "accidentally". Maybe a bad update goes out that causes Alexa to activate randomly, and they quickly fix it after a few days when they collected all the non-Alexa personal conversations they need for their AI.
That's maybe a bit too deep into the paranoia/tinfoil hat spectrum for some, but history has shown that you can't give big tech the benefit of the doubt. Especially when you see some of the documents from the Google trial, where executives discuss rolling back new features to improve arbitrary metrics in the short term so that they can get their bonuses for the quarter, even if it hurts consumers.
And Pokémon Go uses your location for its gameplay
That’s kind of how this shit works..
Is this a surprise to anyone?
This was already my understanding when I got the first pre-release one in 2014.
In that time, it has mainly learned how to"dim the living area lights to 50%" and "set the AC to 22 degrees". That is about 99% of it's use.
Wonder if that's helped it's AI much...
Who the fuck are buying these ? I really want to meet the person who has one of these in their home.
I have 7 in my house. I have my lights, plant humidifier, TV, air filter, Aquarium equipment, and others all hooked up to them. You can run almost anything you need to just by using your voice.
Getting ready to watch something on TV? "Alexa it's movie time." Turns on the TV and Switches the input to the Shield and opens up our go to media app. Shuts off all lights in the house except the living room. Dims those to 10% and changes them to red. Just enough light to see your snacks and the remote by. Turns off the sump filter for the Aquariums in just the living room but leaves the in tank bubble filter going for better silence. All with 4 spoken words and no need to work with multiple remotes and apps in your phone.
That's just one example. We have an obscene amount of routines setup for nearly ecery scenario we have run across and adding new ones is easy.
Hell... We even have a routine where if you say "Alexa, do you know Desi naach?" It plays Naatu Naatu from every speaker in the house at full volume.
Show me a FOSS system as plug and play, powerful, and as EASY to use as Alexa and I'll drop Alexa in the trash tommorow and switch.
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A crazy number of people are buying products with Alexa in them. I don't really get it to be honest. It seems like mostly just a novelty.
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The best market for these will always be older people, and people with disabilities, both mental and physical. Voice interaction is a great interface when there is friction from a screen or physical input.
It's also useful for those with families, as you can use it for shopping reminders, as an intercom around your house, etc.
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