Why your TV wakes up Alexa
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.