'Google's Smart Speakers are Finally Smart Enough to Shut Up' (theverge.com) 60
An anonymous reader shared this scathing rant from the Verge:
It's a truth universally acknowledged that smart speakers should just shut up. I don't want to know when Siri / Alexa / Google has locked my front door — I just asked it to do that and I expect it to happen. (We'll put a pin in the fact that it doesn't always do this). So Google's announcement this week that it's taking more steps to stop its Google Assistant from chattering away to you every time you send a command to a Nest smart speaker is a welcome one.
The Assistant already stays schtum when you ask it to turn the lights off in the room you're in, sending a gentle chime to let you know it was successful. (You know, in case THE LIGHTS TURNING OFF didn't alert you to this fact.) However, it still loves to have a good old chat when you ask it to do something like change the temperature of your thermostat. "Okay, setting the living room AC to 76 degrees." This new change will, according to a community blog post from Google, roll out over the next few weeks. It will make the speaker chime instead of starting a conversation when you ask it to control smart devices, including switches, plugs, fans, blinds, TVs, and speakers.
However, this is still only for the room you and the speaker are in. So, when I'm in bed at night and softly request my Nest Hub to turn off the living room lights, it will still loudly respond, "TURNING OFF LIVING ROOM LIGHTS." Sigh.
The article argues the problem is specific to Google's speakers. "Knowing when to be silent is something every other smart speaker manufacturer figured out a while back."
The Assistant already stays schtum when you ask it to turn the lights off in the room you're in, sending a gentle chime to let you know it was successful. (You know, in case THE LIGHTS TURNING OFF didn't alert you to this fact.) However, it still loves to have a good old chat when you ask it to do something like change the temperature of your thermostat. "Okay, setting the living room AC to 76 degrees." This new change will, according to a community blog post from Google, roll out over the next few weeks. It will make the speaker chime instead of starting a conversation when you ask it to control smart devices, including switches, plugs, fans, blinds, TVs, and speakers.
However, this is still only for the room you and the speaker are in. So, when I'm in bed at night and softly request my Nest Hub to turn off the living room lights, it will still loudly respond, "TURNING OFF LIVING ROOM LIGHTS." Sigh.
The article argues the problem is specific to Google's speakers. "Knowing when to be silent is something every other smart speaker manufacturer figured out a while back."
Lock the front door (Score:3)
Doesn't lock the front door and stays quiet.
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"Okay Google, set the thermostat to 78 degrees."
The gentle chime in response means it has started a game of Global Thermonuclear War.
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With my luck, Google would just start playing some random song about locks on Spotify instead.
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Siri would say "here's what I found about locks on the web".
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Responds silently.... How about not reacting in the first place unless asked? I've got mine setup to know my voice, yet someone on my conference call says "firefox" and suddenly google has a lot to say. Certainly wasn't my voice. Certainly didn't say "Hey Google" either.
With my luck, Google would just start playing some random song about locks on Spotify instead.
I seem to have a problem with getting google to do what I want at the best of times. "Hey google, play music ABC on XYZ speaker", googles response "Here's a video from YouTube...", playing on the Nest Max where it has as screen, not on XYZ
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Just lock the door yourself.
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This is a solved problem - you simply have a separate sensor that tells you when the door is locked. You can buy one off the shelf or make your own.
It's very convenient. For example you can have a button in Home Assistant that locks everything and shows green when all the sensors report in the correct state. One tap when you leave the house, also turns off all the lights and anything else you might have accidentally left on, turns down the thermostat.
The only thing you need to check is that the sensors are
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This is a solved problem - you simply have a separate sensor that tells you when the door is locked. You can buy one off the shelf or make your own.
Better than that they are built in. Little known features called hands and eyes. Use the hands to actuate the mechanism (no voice control needed) and then verify the action with eyes. It might even make a noise so you can verify the verification with sound. Can't be hacked either and only works within the vicinity of the device.
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Check out The Lockpicking Lawyer on YouTube. Turns out most locks are not very difficult to open without the key, and even the best ones rarely take more than a few minutes.
That's why people who are concerned about such things often use a second layer of protection, like a pressure sensitive doormat or door open sensor.
His videos about safes are the most eye opening. Turns out most of them do little more than concentrate all your valuables in one place so that they are easier to steal.
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Clearly this person lives in a different universe (Score:4, Insightful)
...where every computer understands your voice command perfectly every time, there are never network problems, and nothing ever requires confirmation.
Sorry but the rest of us don't live in that universe. There are very good reasons computers give confirmations when we ask them to do something, and even more so when it's not in the same room as us. If their Google speaker is yelling at them at night, maybe they should just learn to turn it the fuck down? Or make the volume setting part of the night routine? ðY
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and nothing ever requires confirmation.
This is as bad as SAP. When i'm doing whatever and select log out, I'm presented with a confirmation screen confiming I want to log out. If I didn't want to log out I wouldn't have selected the option, would I? Just log me out.
As these systems grow, they need to stop thinking and do what they're told. If I say turn off the lights, just do it. No need to verbally confirm it's done. I can see whether it's done or not.*
What should really be done is have an option for
Re: Clearly this person lives in a different unive (Score:3, Insightful)
So if you ask it to turn off the lights in another room, or adjust the thermostat that you're not directly looking at, or lock the front door when you're in bed, you can see that it did what you asked?
Also I realize your comment about not being disabled is a dig about being lazy, but it also comes off as extremely ableist. I have several friends with different degrees of physical disability who use IoT lights and such in their house and for them it's an absolute godsend.
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This is as bad as SAP. When i'm doing whatever and select log out, I'm presented with a confirmation screen confiming I want to log out.
That is Not the same as Providing Confirmation: that is prompting the user to Confirm their request. Prompting the user should only be done for Irreversible "dangerous" operations -- which as few as possible should exist in the system.
Providing Confirmation - is perfectly reasonable... That would be just sending you to a screen after clicking Logout Notifying you t
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This is as bad as SAP. When i'm doing whatever and select log out, I'm presented with a confirmation screen confiming I want to log out. If I didn't want to log out I wouldn't have selected the option, would I? Just log me out.
This depends on user interface design. Where specifically is the logout button? Is there a shortcut key on the keyboard to do it too? Does logging out lock a session that is resumable or do you lose where you are?
There are good reasons to confirm log-outs, especially if it can be triggered accidentally and will result in you losing work.
There's a reason Windows for example will hold the shutdown of a PC if there's a dialogue open or an unsaved file, but will not hold the locking of a PC for the same reason.
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Computers are already better than humans at voice recognition in many ways. Human often mishear or fill in gaps with assumptions based on cultural expectations and what makes sense to them, which computers can now do with LLMs.
Google's voice recognition is done on-device, no need for a network connection. Latency is lower that way, and it costs Google less money. Matter smart devices, which Google is a supporter of, work offline too.
We have been here before with GUIs. People bemoaned them as inefficient com
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Maybe they should a light sensor so that they will respond softly when the lights are low and it's night time.
Or give an option to respond / chime, according to user preferences.
Anyway the only google speakers I recieved (free) I sold off, without even openning it. I don't use any other "smart voice activated doohickey" either.
Got enough spying whenever you go online, don't want to have more stuff listening in to everything and feeding back to a cloud I don't control.
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...where every computer understands your voice command perfectly every time, there are never network problems, and nothing ever requires confirmation.
Sorry but the rest of us don't live in that universe. There are very good reasons computers give confirmations when we ask them to do something, and even more so when it's not in the same room as us. If their Google speaker is yelling at them at night, maybe they should just learn to turn it the fuck down? Or make the volume setting part of the night routine? ðY
Even in the 24th Century, the Enterprise's Computer would almost always give either a voice verification, or one of its typical "request acknowledged" sounds.
Get off my lawn! (Score:2)
I never understood the reason to have smart speakers and always-connected (to the cloud) devices which tell on you all the time.
And before you ask, yes, I do have smart devices, and I control pretty much all of them from my mobile device.
And I would definitely not have a wifi-enabled house lock.
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And I would definitely not have a wifi-enabled house lock.
But would you have a wi-fi enabled faucet [imgur.com]?
I refuse to own a smart speaker (Score:5, Informative)
Re: I refuse to own a smart speaker (Score:2, Troll)
Re: I refuse to own a smart speaker (Score:5, Informative)
Re: I refuse to own a smart speaker (Score:2)
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What is shown up in the app is part of the cloud service... They could change at any time, or could have modified it so they can take some recordings without it appearing as an Audio clip on your account.
Re: I refuse to own a smart speaker (Score:2)
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Technically yes, but there's a ton of legal risk in doing so
What legal risk? Their users agreed to a EULA that essentially allows them to do it. And if you had a dispute, then it would be under binding arbitration and a Class Action waiver. Kind of like they already thought of such a thing.
Furthermore, one would actually need evidence before anyone could sue them. If the recordings are secret and the employees under NDA, then you by definition have no way to ascertain whenever you were recorded -
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> If it's not there they aren't using it.
That's not how National Fascism Letters work.
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I’d put money on you owning a thin blue line bumper sticker.
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The processing for the wake-up word is local.
This is an obvious efficiency thing, But it doesn't mean the Cloud Service can't turn on the microphone. It doesn't mean you cannot be hit with an "Experimental update" targetting your specific device, because an internal business unit would like a specific end users' devices recorded for some reason.
Also; They can, and I have seen both Google and Amazon smart speakers "activating". as if the wake word was spoken when it wasn't -- Probably due to mishe
Re: I refuse to own a smart speaker (Score:3)
Re:I refuse to own a smart speaker (Score:4, Insightful)
because in order for a smart speaker to function it also has to have a microphone that is always listening, it's basically dedicated to spying on you 24/7/365
In the bedroom, no less. When I was growing up it was considered creepy to put a microphone in someone's bedroom.
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That would be creepy. You should put a camera in like a normal pervert.
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Well, some smart speakers have built in cameras as well.
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Years ago Google sent me a smart speaker for free, and let's just say that mine has been silent the whole time.
Have They Fixed Maps Yet? (Score:1)
It's been a while since I did any long distance freeway driving, but it used to drive me absolutely insane when I would hear "There's congestion up ahead" and it was already stop and go for the past 10 minutes ... and it would sporadically say it over and over again as if I didn't fucking know.
The only way to get it to STFU was to turn off notifications all together, but then when traffic starts up again you need to remember to turn it back on because you actually care about the others.
obligatory XKCD (Score:5, Funny)
So we are at stage two? https://xkcd.com/2677/ [xkcd.com]
useless suggestions (Score:5, Informative)
I want them to stop making useless suggestions.
Me: Hey Google, set a 10 minute timer.
Google: Setting timer for 10 minutes. By the way I can do some other thing you don't fucking care about...
Me: HEY GOOGLE SHUT THE FUCK UP.
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I want them to stop making useless suggestions.
Me: Hey Google, set a 10 minute timer.
Google: Setting timer for 10 minutes. By the way I can do some other thing you don't fucking care about...
Me: HEY GOOGLE SHUT THE FUCK UP.
If you put a talking box that is made by an advertising company in your house, this is what you get.
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Alexa's even worse with the suggestions.
What annoys me most about Google is
"Ok google, (Question here)"
Google: "[Blah blah...] Hey, I just sent a link to your phone"
Me: WAIT.. I'm asking you the question to answer as a Voice assistant - not for you to annoy my friends on other devices. That's my mate's phone. WTF, Google?
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Or worse, the poor blighter who installed Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant:
Blighter: Lock the friggin front door. (leaves room)
Alexa: (locks door) Okay, I've locked the door.
Goog. Ass.: (unlocks door) I thought he said to unlock the door.
Alexa: Nah...he said to lock it.
GAss: Nope, I heard "unlock".
Alexa: (relocks the door) I've relocked the door, keep it that way.
GAss: (Unlocks door) I distinctly heard "Unlock".
Alexa: Damnit, keep it locked, don't make me get medieval on your ass.
GAss: Oh yeah, I'll fix yo
Knowing when to be silent is something every other (Score:2)
smart speaker manufacturer figured out a while back."
I heartily disagree, Alexa is a constantly upselling & chattering bitch.
I ask for music to resume/start/artist and often I get the start of the following long ass story
"Amazon music stopped playing because so long had gone without inter...."
BITCH, I do not need the background, just roll the tunes now please.
Sirius Cybernetics (Score:5, Insightful)
Google is taking their inspiration from Sirius Cybernetics.
"It all is... Look at this door," he said, stepping through it. The irony circuits cut in to his voice modulator as he mimicked the style of the sales brochure. "All the doors in this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done."
Spykers! (Score:3)
Wait, these detailed answers are very necessary (Score:3)
"Okay, setting the living room AC to 76 degrees." This new change will, ..
The current behavior is very necessary, since it lets me know the Correct command has been run.
Because face it.. These things often mishear commands I never said, or hear the incorrect number. A chime Only informs you it did SOMETHING, Not that it correctly parsed the command and did the correct thing. I don't want to wake up 30 minutes later freezing, because it bleepin misheard my command as "Set temperature to 70 degrees"
So, when I'm in bed at night and softly request my Nest Hub to turn off the living room lights, it will still loudly respond, "TURNING ...
For a quiet response in bed.. How about use a tactile remote control solution to reliably switch off the Living Room lights. This would avoid the chance of it being misheard as "Turn off the porch lights" ?
Maybe someone picked the wrong solution. What is the point of spending the bucks for a Home automation solution and STILL use manual commands? That's dumb, Although still faster than what it replaces -- which is walking to the living room and manually flicking a physical switch.
Program the Smarthome solution appropriately on a schedule, or Stick an occupancy sensor in there, and the Living room lights should switch off automatically when noone's in the living room.
Or maybe just reach over to that Smart dumb speaker that is going to be potentially spying on whatever noises or words you happen to sound in your sleep, And lower the volume to 1%. so it responds as softly as you like.
It's simply very Valuable that the thing tells you exactly what it is doing. and Lets you know that it is Running the command you thought you said, And that it is successful - not just some generic Chime telling you it's doing something but who knows what.
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Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
All the replicator every did was make this weird kind of noise, unless it couldn't make tea then it said so. It may not have memorized the Captain's preference, but at least it never brewed him a cup of battery acid.
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All the replicator every did was make this weird kind of noise, unless it couldn't make tea then it said so.
Yes.. This, however, was a Science-Fiction show with a much more advanced computer than anything like Google that Always seemed to recognize the words he said accurately 100% of the time.
While we might like to have such a thing... Google is a long way from being there, and can often Mishear what we said, So we kind of do really need the unit to Confirm to us what it's doing -- Of course one of the
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Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
All the replicator every did was make this weird kind of noise, unless it couldn't make tea then it said so. It may not have memorized the Captain's preference, but at least it never brewed him a cup of battery acid.
It did, however, replicate a potted plant in (IIRC) Picard's teacup!
I'm told... (Score:2)
I don't trust them (Score:2)
Want to lock the door? Get up off your ass and lock it. Want to turn on the lights? Ditto.
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I prefer having the abilitiy to turn off the lights from my chair, without having to get up and walk over to the lamp. But I don't trust the Internet of Things - so I use a pellet gun.
It's getting kind of expensive, though.
...and leave my other devices alone (Score:2)
Alexa: Did you know your printer is getting low on magenta ink? Would you like to order some?
Me: Shut the fuck up. And don't talk to my printer.
Siri wrongly included in list (Score:2)
As much as Apple deserves to be dinged for having the third place voice assistant, they actually got this one right.
Go to your iOS device and go to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Responses > Prefer Silent Responses. The setting seems to carry over from your iOS device to HomePods as well, though only when it recognizes your voice. I have responses disabled and will generally only hear from Siri when I was far away/unclear or something went wrong, whereas my wife (who has responses enabled) get
My solution: Don't buy Google devices (Score:3)
Wiretap (Score:1)
Don't you feel patronized by voice command? (Score:2)