The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Why your TV wakes up Alexa

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IT’S a mystery that’s baffled many smart speaker owners: why does Alexa wake up without anyone saying her name?

Amazon’s bestsellin­g electronic voice assistant – and many others – are only supposed to activate on command. But academics have now discovered more than 1,000 expression­s or words the devices misinterpr­et as wake-up orders if they appear in TV dialogue.

Alexa will spark into life if the device mistakes ‘unacceptab­le’ or the phrase ‘a letter’ for its name. ‘Election’ can also wake her up if pronounced with a specific accent.

Google’s voice-controlled technology should respond only to ‘OK, Google’ but will also answer to ‘OK, cool’. Researcher­s at Ruhr-Universita­t Bochum and the Max Planck Institute in Germany found that Apple’s virtual assistant – roused by the command ‘Hey Siri’ – also responds to ‘Hey Jerry’. And Cortana, Microsoft’s smart speaker, will respond when it hears ‘Montana’.

Alexa has also been known to mistakenly order products online.

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