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I'm not sure the distinction is as notable as you're making it. The iPhone as you describe it is perfectly capable of listening to everything you say, it just h

by DSMan195276 9y ago

I'm not sure the distinction is as notable as you're making it. The iPhone as you describe it is perfectly capable of listening to everything you say, it just has to never release control of the mic to the low-power ASIC. I'm also not sure the article actually indicates what you're saying, it's kind-of vague. For example, it never states that anybody was able to actually program Alexa with a new wake-word, just the possibility of being able to create different signatures that could be used as wake-words. And the description of how they prevent things like the superbowl ad could all be done after Alexa detects the wake-word wakes up the main processor, but before Alexa actually responds to the user. I don't see anything in the article that indicates Alexa can't be using a separate chip dedicated to listening to the wake-word. To that end, not to long ago a Reddit user claimed that Alexa did have two separate modes it operated in [0]. Which, it is entirely possible they could be lying, but you could always just open the thing up and take a look. But even if it does have a separate chip my previous point about the iPhone still applies, so besides power-usage I don't think it is extremely notable. [0] https://np.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/7m91u9/if_google_devices_only_start_listening_once_you/drsdxe1/?sh=c90d0649&st=JBO70BSD https://np.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/7m91u9/if_go...

secabeen 9y ago
The other angle is that were Alexa actually recording and sending voice data frequently, it would show up in the traffic data. Unless they're smuggling past recordings along piecemeal along with actual recordings, traffic analysis would work.
- Klathmon 9y ago
  Unless they are capable of doing the speech-to-text on-device, then the amount of data is negligible. Hell, if they were really crafty they could have it listen for a specific phrase or word, then send back as little as a single byte signifying that it was heard. (I own an echo and a few Google homes, and I don't actually think this is happening, but the idea is kind of fun to chase)
  - sitkack 9y ago
    > Unless they are capable of doing the speech-to-text on-device, then the amount of data is negligible. What is the lowest bitrate codec and how does it compare to the plaintext version?
    - Klathmon 9y ago
      Well considering text is literally hundreds of bytes, I can't imagine audio would be able to keep up.
      - sitkack 9y ago
        Take a look at the BoE calc that someone else did in this thread, it might shed some light on what is possible.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - secabeen 9y ago
    Yeah, that is an interesting idea. I'm not sure anyone is making an ASIC for speech-to-text right now, but if they were, it could enable this sort of thing. Might show up in a teardown, though. A General Purpise CPU could of course, do it, but that would push the bill of materials for the device up quite a bit.

secabeen 9y ago

The other angle is that were Alexa actually recording and sending voice data frequently, it would show up in the traffic data. Unless they're smuggling past recordings along piecemeal along with actual recordings, traffic analysis would work.

Klathmon 9y ago
Unless they are capable of doing the speech-to-text on-device, then the amount of data is negligible. Hell, if they were really crafty they could have it listen for a specific phrase or word, then send back as little as a single byte signifying that it was heard. (I own an echo and a few Google homes, and I don't actually think this is happening, but the idea is kind of fun to chase)
- sitkack 9y ago
  > Unless they are capable of doing the speech-to-text on-device, then the amount of data is negligible. What is the lowest bitrate codec and how does it compare to the plaintext version?
  - Klathmon 9y ago
    Well considering text is literally hundreds of bytes, I can't imagine audio would be able to keep up.
    - sitkack 9y ago
      Take a look at the BoE calc that someone else did in this thread, it might shed some light on what is possible.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- secabeen 9y ago
  Yeah, that is an interesting idea. I'm not sure anyone is making an ASIC for speech-to-text right now, but if they were, it could enable this sort of thing. Might show up in a teardown, though. A General Purpise CPU could of course, do it, but that would push the bill of materials for the device up quite a bit.