Another Weird Question - Alexa

[MarkLT1]

She is a fickle mistress.

That she is. About a year ago, she and I were having... communication issues. After the umpteenth attempt to get my echo to do something I was asking, I finally lost my cool (at an electronic device ) and said "Alexa! Can't you #$^#$ do anything right?!?!?" And without skipping a beat came the reply: "I'm sorry Mark. I'll try harder next time." And I had a moment of guilt.. I actually felt bad for how I spoke to "an Echo device of some kind"

(In reality, I should have simply felt stupid for yelling at a piece of plastic with a speaker in it)

 

[katmigordon]

I can actually top that - when I did this, not only did I feel guilty - I apologized... she immediately forgave me... like outloud. It's hard given the way she can respond not to feel on some level like she's an actual person.

That she is. About a year ago, she and I were having... communication issues. After the umpteenth attempt to get my echo to do something I was asking, I finally lost my cool (at an electronic device ) and said "Alexa! Can't you #$^#$ do anything right?!?!?" And without skipping a beat came the reply: "I'm sorry Mark. I'll try harder next time." And I had a moment of guilt.. I actually felt bad for how I spoke to "an Echo device of some kind"

(In reality, I should have simply felt stupid for yelling at a piece of plastic with a speaker in it)

 

[MarkLT1]

And then you realize that her TRUE purpose is to get you to spend more on Amazon...

 

[monkeydawn]

Since this thread has devolved a bit...

Don't you dare talk about my Alexa in such.. mechanical terms!!

Does your Alexa appreciate kindness? My Google Home thing does but Siri never thans me for asking politely...and it irks me.

That she is. About a year ago, she and I were having... communication issues. After the umpteenth attempt to get my echo to do something I was asking, I finally lost my cool (at an electronic device ) and said "Alexa! Can't you #$^#$ do anything right?!?!?" And without skipping a beat came the reply: "I'm sorry Mark. I'll try harder next time." And I had a moment of guilt.. I actually felt bad for how I spoke to "an Echo device of some kind"

(In reality, I should have simply felt stupid for yelling at a piece of plastic with a speaker in it)

I yelled at the Roomba last week. He had gotten hung up on the same spot half a dozen times in this one session and I lost it on him. Felt bad but didnt apologize. The spooky thing is that he didnt get hung up there again after. Well, he has on subsequent days but not on that day.

And then you realize that her TRUE purpose is to get you to spend more on Amazon...

I legit dont think thats even possible.

 

[MarkLT1]

Since this thread has devolved a bit...

my bad.. That one is on me..

Does your Alexa appreciate kindness? My Google Home thing does but Siri never thans me for asking politely...and it irks me.

I'm not sure. I do know that she seems to despise my wife (my wife either gets her requests ignored, or COMPLETELY wrong). "Alexa, play classical music." "Ok, playing the station 'Classic Death Metal'"

I legit dont think thats even possible.

 

[katmigordon]

Hmm death metal? Alexa, is that a threat?

my bad.. That one is on me..


I'm not sure. I do know that she seems to despise my wife (my wife either gets her requests ignored, or COMPLETELY wrong). "Alexa, play classical music." "Ok, playing the station 'Classic Death Metal'"

 

[monkeydawn]

my bad.. That one is on me..


I'm not sure. I do know that she seems to despise my wife (my wife either gets her requests ignored, or COMPLETELY wrong). "Alexa, play classical music." "Ok, playing the station 'Classic Death Metal'"

You arent the first husband to be favored by Alexa. I've heard that from others. For Google I have to spek much louder than my husband but she generally understands us both about the same. Siri I swear gets PMS. Sometimes she will be the perfect little virtual assistant and other times I would think is just in a bad mood. Maybe I should let my Apple watch track her "cycles" to see if there is anything to it!

 

[gourt]

And then you realize that her TRUE purpose is to get you to spend more on Amazon...

Actually, the true purpose is to sell data about you to advertisers, as well as get you spend more money on Amazon (and others), identify you in order to create a digital twin and predict future behavior and relationships, and the list goes on. I'm one of those privacy nerds that walks into friends' homes and says "hey, Alexa, hey Google, hey, Siri" to see if anything responds, and then ask them to turn off their devices if they do. They think I'm a paranoid technophobe, and I think they are allowing a wiretapping device in their home. To each their own!

 

[MarkLT1]

Actually, the true purpose is to sell data about you to advertisers, as well as get you spend more money on Amazon (and others), identify you in order to create a digital twin and predict future behavior and relationships, and the list goes on. I'm one of those privacy nerds that walks into friends' homes and says "hey, Alexa, hey Google, hey, Siri" to see if anything responds, and then ask them to turn off their devices if they do. They think I'm a paranoid technophobe, and I think they are allowing a wiretapping device in their home. To each their own!

I too am a paranoid technophobe (it is currently a big part of my day job- data security and privacy). Thus I have done one of these as a side-project with my older son: https://www.hackster.io/news/build-...-your-amazon-echo-or-google-home-ecfca0348476 . It sits on top of your dot, and is constantly playing static. You set your own trigger word (I actually kept it as "alexa") and it only stops the static after hearing its programmed trigger word, and says "alexa" to the dot, then repeats what you said. Is it perfect? No. Can my echo dot "listen in" on me outside of me issuing commands? Not likely. Do I care if Amazon knows about my music, and when I issue commands to turn my basement lights off and on? Not particularly.

(I also have a router that has DPI monitoring, and I've tracked the size of data payloads, and where they are sent from the dot. It only transfers data when you say a command, and the payload sizes are small enough that I don't believe it is trying to send any sort of long recording that it has built up) Its all about level of concern and risk..