Alexa – the snoop that blabs to your friends

[Ed P]

If the El Reg story about Alexa blabbing a private conversation to a random contact spooks you out (and it should), then check out Kaldi.

Unfortunately Kaldi is not an off-the-shelf substitute, time and a LOT of development work would be required to even bring it close to being a viable substitute.

[Richard]

I am not sure that the Alexa story has me as worried as perhaps it should, I see no personal need or interest in such a device. I am also a bit surprised at the way Alexa ab-reacted. I had not seen similar reports in the past and wondered why this device had ended up with a configuration that caused the issue. I should expect that someone somewhere will be taking more than a passing interest in the how and why this arose.

That said, I am not surprised that a ‘room bug’ was able to perform that way, in essence that is what bugs do. I imagine that an unfortunate combination of ‘Hey’ + ‘Alexa’+ ‘call whoever’ could easily result in similar events.

OK Google either looks up unwanted and unconnected on the internet or tries to call a wrong number, never what I wanted it to do. I abandoned trying to get it to work as I wanted. One example; ‘OK Google, call home’.

Google answer; ‘You want to speak to someone in the Home Office?’

Or it gives some similar nonsense response.

[Ed P]

I think in this example Alexa showed both the strength (and weakness) of continuously learning AI driven applications. Alexa has the ability to learn new skills during use, and when it finds itself stumped it can go out and add additional skills. link. Although this requires human assent, it also means that a human has to anticipate the upsides and downsides of using the skill in question. I suspect that the victim of the blabbing had at some stage allowed calls to be automatically made in response to a set of spoken comments.

When I had a hand in evaluating the use of primitive AI tools (twenty-odd years ago), the big drawback was documenting WHY AI generated a certain outcome and why just a small input perturbation flipped the result. AFAIK AI has not progressed too far since then  in self-auditing its decision-making process. Until this happens AI will always have the ability to both shock and delight.

Averting any problems requires knowledge, imagination and application of logic by the user. This in turn means that general public tool-sets such as Alexa will always come with potential problems for the unwary or technically illiterate. I therefore anticipate seeing stories of unwitting revelations by UK Ministers in the not too distant future!?

[The Duke]

This is a feature they activated by accedent.

[Richard]

The Duke wrote:

This is a feature they activated by accedent.

That would be my reading, many, (most) mobiles can do such things as a result of wrong touches, so why not words as well. I guess the story and the headline did not totally align?

[The Duke]

We have an a alexa somewhere. Think Thr lads use it, but you can call other alexas that are in your alexia phone book.

Google home ups it one and can call anyone. I’m not sure how it does it, or who pays for thr calls as you can call mobiles and land-line. It’s really good tbh,

[Bob Williams]

My No.2 gson bought me an Echo Dot 2 years ago, but I have no use for it. I think hope he has forgotten about it, as he has not asked me about it.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[RSB]

I never thought I would say it but I am an amazon fan boy now. Be that shopping or fire tv sticks and the apps for the phone including the music one which I pay a bit extra for. Plus I owe amazon/Morrisons apology as I had a proper sharp word with them when my steak was missing from my order last Friday. I must have had a funny moment when unpacking as it was found in my fridge last night. Still they delivered the wrong flavored cat biscuits on the same order how ever they sent 2 bags instead of 1 bag that I paid of so it’s hard to complain there to “But I Will” 🙂

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Ed P]

Cats are incredibly fussy eaters if given half a chance.

[The Duke]

That Amazon suck you in bit by bit, and then one day you realise, your a fan boy.

It’s there customer service that keeps me. Nothing is ever an issue. Also my Mrs has a knack of never paying full price for prime.

[Richard]

Having had another Amazon delivery today when the normal supplier said ‘out of stock’ so I should also accept being a happy Amazon customer.

The supermarket delivery service is now held in the background as we find;

a) an increasing need for flexibility

b) the need to ensure we have something on hand and not be in wait mode

c) it is one reason to get out of the house even briefly.

d) managing appointments can be a challenge

However when the rock and a hard issue place wedges things in, the supermarket delivery option can be a life saver.

[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

Cats are incredibly fussy eaters if given half a chance.

I could introduce you to a husky, that will turn over every morsel, inspect every biscuit from both sides, even including the lick test before deciding the time is not right, selecting the one to eat or some other issue gets in her way; like today is not a food day.

[RSB]

Ed P wrote:

Cats are incredibly fussy eaters if given half a chance.

Your damn right there. However my smaller cat is sick instantly after most cat biscuits apart from 1, actual now 2 and that’s go-cat in the plastic bags. Beef and veg and chicken and veg. And if she does not like something she will go days with out untill I twig and get the correct stuff.

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Bob Williams]

I never had a problem getting any of my German Sheppies to eat, but every single one would go right off drink at the wrong time: when it was really, really hot. Stupid buggas just would not drink. I found the best solution with the last one, who lived in the workshop with me at work: he loved ice cold milk. Yes, I know it’s wrong, but I let him drink just enough then started dribbling cold water into the bowl and he fell for it. Eventually he drank so much water that his belly was distended, after which he had a HUGE urinary event and I made him lie down in a cool corner, with a breeze playing over him.

My Army dog Blue, I would buy and boil up a Sheep’s head, and make up a thick stew with carrots and whatever dry biscuits I could find, let it set. (he loved carrots) those two were pure-bred German, proper Deutscher Schäferhund, with all the papers. They were both massive dogs, but my Blue had been bred as an attack dog and had to be carefully kept. My workshop dog J-J was maybe a little larger, but due to his early life of abuse, he hated everything and everyone except for myself and the garage staff. I used to make him a sheep’s head stew too, every 2 weeks, he loved it. An Army vet gave me that tip for bigger dogs, reckoned it gave them stuff they didn’t get in tins and dry food. I never actually gave any of my dogs tinned food, always got to know a local butcher and got scraps: all good meat, that humans would not eat. I got them knuckle bones as well, stripped out the marrow from bones and cooked it in with the sheep’s heads. The living proof was always a healthy dog. J-J was not the garage dog, he was mine and would go home with me, once he knew the family and decided they were not for eating!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[JayCeeDee]

If ever we get a dog that isn’t drinking enough in the hot weather, we get a bit of roast chicken – we always have a box full in the fridge for treats – and drop a small handful in the water bowl. They know it’s there and no matter how hard they try just to pick out the meat, there’s always a good amount of water goes down too!!

[Tippon]

Ellen freezes a plastic takeaway container full of treats and snacks, topped off with water. We separate the dogs and give them one each. In their rush to get to the snacks, they usually eat the ice too. Thanks to the size and shape of the containers, we can usually keep a couple in the freezer too.

[The Duke]

Mine over heat very quickly, so when it gets hot they don’t go out. They just sleep more, usually in the front of the house that is always cool (zero sun), on the wooden floor.

They get taken for a walk about 9.30 if anyone can be bothered, by then. Luckally mine don’t really need walking, their legs are all of 4 or 5 inches long, and are not the most energetic. They would be fine with zero walking, getting enough exercise when they have there 10 min play fights 3x a day.

But I quite enjoy the dog walking (sort of the point of us getting them). The smaller out of the two, will let you know then she is ready to go home. She just sits down. We will walk on, and she will still be there 30 mins later. Excited we returned.

[Author]

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