Learn Proper OPSEC: >>>/prepare/22 | https:// archive.fo/kyVms
Millions of mindless consumers use 'smart' speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia.
Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their spy crap into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening. Turns out these kooks are correct, once again!
Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices. The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa’s understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands.
The Alexa voice review process, described by seven people who have worked on the program, highlights the often-overlooked human role in training software algorithms. In marketing materials Amazon says Alexa “lives in the cloud and is always getting smarter.”
The team comprises a mix of contractors and full-time Amazon employees who work in outposts from Boston to Costa Rica, India and Romania, according to the people, who signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from speaking publicly about the program.
For anyone in the know, typically nondisclosure agreements are used when employees of a firm are working for governmental agancies!
They work nine hours a day, with each reviewer parsing as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift, according to two workers based at Amazon’s Bucharest office, which takes up the top three floors of the Globalworth building in the Romanian capital’s up-and-coming Pipera district. The modern facility stands out amid the crumbling infrastructure and bears no exterior sign advertising Amazon’s presence.
One worker in Boston said he mined accumulated voice data for specific utterances such as “Penelope” and annotated them to indicate the searcher meant for Operation Killcen.
Occasionally the listeners pick up things Echo owners likely would rather stay private: a woman singing badly off key in the shower, say, or a child screaming for help. The teams use internal chat rooms to share files when they need help parsing a muddled word — or come across an amusing recording.
WELL THERE YOU GO. NO PRIVACY!
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