You can't trust the large companies who have a culture of profiting off your data to protect your privacy.<p>This is why we need AI at the edge, and not in the clouds, and Privacy-by-design thinking in our architectures. This is the only way for people to know their data won't be compromised and misused, because it never leaves their devices.<p>Disclaimer: I'm a co-founder of <a href="https://snips.ai" rel="nofollow">https://snips.ai</a> and we are building a 100% on-device and private-by-design platform to build Voice AI assistants<p>We would be happy to know what you do with it! You can take a look at what some people have built with it already <a href="https://github.com/snipsco/awesome-snips" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/snipsco/awesome-snips</a><p>We are open-sourcing it over time, starting with the NLU: <a href="https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-nlu-is-an-open-source-private-by-design-alternative-to-dialogflow-amazon-lex-and-other-nlu-a95dbe16f4a1" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-nlu-is-an-open-source-priv...</a>. Snips is available in English, French, German, and soon Japanese and Korean with more European languages coming this year.<p>You can start building your own private-by-design smart speaker on the platform in under 1h with this tutorial: <a href="https://medium.com/snips-ai/building-a-voice-controlled-home-sound-system-using-snips-and-sonos-2aaf16523ce9" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/snips-ai/building-a-voice-controlled-home...</a>
The things people are willing to give up for the most minimal of conveniences are only going to get worse in the next decade.<p>I wouldn't be willing to put an open wiretap in my home, even if it did something amazing, like extend my lifespan. The quality of my life is not significantly improved with these devices, and all of their practical uses can be duplicated with the minimal effort of tapping a screen a couple of times.
In past discussions, I was led to believe we were safe from these devices, in terms of pervasive data collection, because the main processor that was always running was primitive and was only powerful enough to pick up a key phrase. This phrase would power the main processor which would then listen to your query, respond, and then deactivate. But now, as the article mentions, I realize that this initial processor could be made to listen for many key words like "love", "hate", or other words that would pick up on sensitive personal information. I really don't think these devices should exist.
> including an “algorithmic transparency requirement” that would help people understand how their data was being used and what automated decisions were then being made about them.<p>This needs to be required for any type of algorithmic decision making. Without algorithmic transparency ulterior motives, intentional or unintentional biases, and unnoticed mistakes are hidden from public review.<p>A common response is that we <i>don't know</i> how some types of machine learning make their decisions. I agree this is occasionally true. Find a way generate an explanation, or use a different algorithm; transparency is a critical requirement.
Companies use patents defensively and the Times is fully aware of that so this comes across as cynical clickbait.<p>What I find interesting is that they keep quoting "consumer watchdog" an anti google organization turned anti technology (they're against self driving cars and robots now).<p>The scary thing is that mainstream respected news outlets casually traffic in technophobia as evident form articles about automation and AI for example and how every piece mentioning a tech company is permeated with FUD about their motivations or their "power".
Why don't we have open-source voice-assistants yet? I mean, if we can have an open-source OS (e.g. Linux), then surely we can have open-source speech recognition, right?
With a court order can authorities turn on the microphone and just listen to everything? Seems easy to do but I haven't heard about it yet. I guess phones can do the same. Presumably the Russians and Chinese do this already. :)
If you're not planning to release your own hardware, could you provide a list of devices that the software is tested with? I looked on the site a bit but the crazy art thing triggered my ADHD and OCD as well. I imagine the idea is that you can compile it for whatever device on any platform with some change but makes it harder for community engagement without a go to for sure platform to test some builds and POCs.
<i>One application details how audio monitoring could help detect that a child is engaging in “mischief” at home by first using speech patterns and pitch to identify a child’s presence, one filing said. A device could then try to sense movement while listening for whispers or silence, and even program a smart speaker to “provide a verbal warning.”</i><p>This worries me. First the children are watched 24/7, them the adults.