TV anchor says live on-air 'Alexa, order me a dollhouse' – guess what happens next

My echo picked up something being said on the TV and suddenly blurted out "do you want me to order your dog food?" and waited for a confirmation. Surprised, I said No and the order attempt was cancelled. Straight after, I disabled the voice ordering. :)

Oh, we don't even have a dog.

I can see someone in advert land rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of their new TV ad...

"You too can have the great Widget in your house. And remember you can order through Alexa... Order Widget NOW!.... Yes Don't delay. It will be loved by you and your family".

Honest judge, I didn't realise that would happen.

Be careful what you wish for

A cold morning, chap cleans the ice off of his car windscreen and walks back into his house.

Without thinking he remarks to his robobutler "Fuck me it's cold out there"

The butler replies; "At once Sir........"

Life imitating Dilbert

I remember Wally developed a habit of saying "Delete file" in a loud voice when the company started trialing voice activated computers.

Computer security? problems have only just begun

> That, apparently, was enough to set off Alexa-powered Echo boxes around San Diego on their own shopping sprees.

If all that happened was that some people got an unwanted order, they got off lightly.

Hopefully the next time, it won't be something like Alexa, send $1000 to this charity, then close my account and delete all my files

The opportunities for voice-recognised security breaches make ordinary, I.P. security look like Fort Knox by comparison. Just imagine how much damage could be caused by the person at the next desk (or the next table in the cafe) recording your conversation, editing in or out the choice words and then replaying your own voice to make your voice-operated phone / device do bad things.

Voice operation is intrinsically insecure. We have enough trouble with systems that are, at least, theoretically securable. These systems seem to be unfixable without completely removing the convenience that is their biggest attraction.

NOt the broadcasters problem

Why is this problem being characterised as a broadcasters problem, it is Amazon problem!

PIN!

If you buy something with the ability to purchase things easily, make sure you enable the PIN functionality.

OK, on Alexa it isn't that secure as you have to say the PIN out loud, but it'd stop accidental purchases!

Speak?

I got a computer so I wouldn't have to speak.

*sigh*

Comedy Material From the 70s

I remember it as a sketch from Dave Allen on the BBC in the 70s with a voice controlled chair being demonstrated to a friend

feet up- good

back down - good

Well, bugger me- Noooo!!!!!!!

I entered my home number into my car phone. The first time I used voice command to call home it told me it didn't have an entry. I got it to read out the entries and it pronounced it "hume", i.e. the pronunciation used by the former Prime Minister. Presumably the makers think more of their customers know someone called Home than have homes to go to.

They need to sort this out before self-driving cars come onto the market. Come out of the pub, get into the car and get driven to a suburb of Manchester.

Just ... why?

Unless you're in need of an enabling tool to overcome a disability, WHY O WHY would you want to sound like an oversized dildo and talk to a bloody marketing droid from 'mazon or 'oogle? (or anyone else for dat matter).

Convenience is a kak excuse ... so, try me.

OK, I concede that I come from an era where we made stuff, pondered what we may need (shockingly, AHEAD of time!), and other really stupid stuff. Now you pay someone to send you a droid which then sucks what remains of your privacy, while charging you for the privilege - and pushing crappy tosh at you.

Yay progress, Enjoy kids, I am off to deal with 6 feet of snow and real stuff.

(Oh yeah, got to upvote the comments re voice recognition having worked tolerably well on purely local devices ... w/out the need to phone home!)

Alexa or Lintilla clones

Until the purveyors of these cloned personal voice activated assistants allow me to set the name of my device. I ain't buying one,

Now here's a thought if we had multiple wake words we could configure the box to support multiple personalities for the multiple people in the house?

Leaving your Christmas presents in full, has new meaning.

I can see this ending badly for the next Amazon Echo on full view, sitting on the front Window sill. No need to steal it, just speak to it.

A many-years-old story - almost certainly apocryphal - tells of a press release/demonstration of "...the very latest voice recognition software! So advanced, it does not have to be 'trained'!! It understands any user immediately!!!..."

To which, some wag at the back of the room called out "Format C colon return yes return."

And before long - the actual adverts will likely take advantage of this fact by saying something like - take advantage of this offer by simply saying "Alexa, book me a test drive with Nissan". "Alex, add tampons to my shopping list", "Alexa, subscribe to amazon prime"

After all - how many people actually sit and watch the adverts.

From now on the first thing I say when entering a friends house will be "Alexa, order me a rubber horse cock" *

* Anatomically correct animal dildos are a thing now apparently - I thought it would be funny to search for ridiculous things on a friends PC thereby messing up the ads that he sees online for the foreseeable future - the mental images I am now stuck with were NOT worth it.