In video, Alexa goes strangely quiet when asked if it's connected to the CIA

boing
21

Once, years ago, I thought having an AI assistant around would be kind of cool. But after reading about all the problems with these IOS devices, I wouldn’t let one of those in my house. Of course my phone and computer and router and toilet are probably also connected to the CIA. I’ll have to ask, but I bet I won’t get an answer.

4 Likes
22

Except that providing visibility and evidence of criminal activity is pretty much the main and primary purpose of CCTV.
Amazon Dot, not so much. :confused:

(Sure, I get the point that the same laws (may) apply to Dot, but I bet wider knowledge of that same fact would affect sales, because the the purpose of the item is very, very different.)

4 Likes
23

I think the difference is that the smart assistant that we were ‘sold’ in science fiction (such as Clarke’s ‘slates’), were discrete, self-contained devices that did all their processing locally, even when accessing other systems for data.

The devices that are getting close to offering this same functionality in the real world, today, defer a lot of their processing to external servers.

While this defers the local processing and hardware cost of things like voice recognition and data searching, the fact that that all happens on someone else’s servers, also has suboptimal consequences, too.

4 Likes
24

“Alexa, who killed Collins?”

Case solved!

1 Like
25

love your choice of word there! :confused:

2 Likes
26

I am a masternovice of understatement.

4 Likes
27

‘Video no longer available’ = icing on the cake.

4 Likes
28

Alexa goes quiet like that when I ask her pretty much anything out of the scope of her data. “Alexa, do you like waffles?” gets the same response.

3 Likes
29

Betcha they were CIA waffles,

3 Likes
30

While looking for the video elseware because it was taken off of Boingboing - my kaspersky went off at Abovenet communications 216.200.199.79 when I clicked a link. Virutotal scan flagged it as a phishing site. FYI. Don’t look there.

1 Like
31

Get a second opinion: Ask your TV.

3 Likes
32

Interesting piece on voice user interface (VUI) trust. As much work needs to go into VUI design as there is in GUI design. Trust with a VUI is as important as trust is between us humans and as fragile.

1 Like
33

When I ask my microwave if it’s connected to the CIA, it stays silent and Never Says Anything.

5 Likes
34

Yeah, but inside she’s smiling.

2 Likes
35

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.