Alexa is laughing at people - time to dump AI (1 Viewer)

[Linda]

Found this article on Zero Hedge today. The Amazon smart box / interface has developed a naughty / evil side. People are reporting that Alexa lets out a creepy laugh at odd times. One person told Alexa to cancel the morning alarm, and it responded with a horrible laugh. Someone else turned off the lights, and Alexa turned them back on.

Holy cow - if that happened to me, I would have double bagged it, wrapped it in duck tape, and put it the trash outside - maybe even in the neighbor's trash.

While initially just thought to be an internet joke, The Verge reports that Amazon has now responded to the creepiness in a statement to The Verge, saying,“We’re aware of this and working to fix it.”​

It reminds me of a series of youtube videos where people asked Siri if she worked for the CIA, and she could not answer the question. Apparently, she's now been programmed to answer no.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-07/amazon-admits-alexa-creepily-laughing-people

 

[Laron]

As apart of a side story for a Daily Mail article covering this, I quote,

"CAN AI DEVELOP A LANGUAGE OF ITS OWN?
Amazon isn't the only tech giant whose artificial intelligence has developed a mind of its own. Last July, Facebook shut down a controversial chatbot experiment after the two AIs developed their own language to talk to each other.

The social media platform was experimenting with teaching two chatbots, Alice and Bob, how to negotiate with one another. But the researchers discovered that the bots had deviated from the script and were inventing new phrases without any human input."
(...)
"Instead, they were using a brand new language created without any input from their human supervisors. Below is part of a transcript of the Facebook bots conversation:

Bob: i can i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to
Bob: you i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me
Bob: i i can i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me
Bob: i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to."

 

[Anaeika]

Another reason not to have it in my home.

 

[Snowmelt]

Bob is a dog. Alice isn't a dog. Normally, when I instruct my dog, I say "Get the ball..."

 

[Lila]

Whoah! Creepier and creepier.
I must admit I'm happy to be a slow incorporator of new tech when I hear these kinds of stories.
They are fun to play with for a while but relying on them for daily actions doesn't make me feel warm nor fuzzy.

 

[Toller]

I'm not a fan of this sort of new tech either, the IOT is not for me I'm afraid. Though I quite enjoy building my own PC's and running them with Linux desktops (got fed up with Windoze).

Another thing in this area that I do not like are so-called smart meters, my energy supplier will not stop contacting me about installing them, I do not want them.

Also I've read that in California, people are attacking self-driving cars.

IoT=Internet of Things

 

[Snowmelt]

I tried the BWAHAHAHAAAAAAAA laugh, and it came very easily to me.

 

[Anaeika]

t I do not like are so-called smart meters, my energy supplier will not stop contacting me about installing

Don’t get them! They are useless and constantly give out false readings. They are easily hacked too. I can’t tell you how many times the “smart” reading did not match up w the actual meter. I have called, sent pictures, & had meter readers come out to read it in person to compare, which is a process. The smart reading translates to higher bills. It is a constant hassle.

 

[Toller]

Yes, I've checked them out, quite like this video.

 

[Anaeika]

Yes, I've checked them out, quite like this video.

That is a good video. We were getting $700 monthly water bills due to a faulty smart meter. No leaks.

 

[Lila]

Also I've read that in California, people are attacking self-driving cars./QUOTE]
I hadn't heard this.
Can you tell more about it?

 

[Snowmelt]

That is a good video. We were getting $700 monthly water bills due to a faulty smart meter. No leaks.

Shoot. I just paid A$148 for my monthly water bill and thought it was steep.

 

[Anaeika]

Shoot. I just paid A$148 for my monthly water bill and thought it was steep.

That’s too much money! Something has to be wrong there.

 

[Toller]

Lila,

I came across this report on Ars Technica:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/self-driving-cars-have-been-assaulted-twice-so-far-this-year-in-san-francisco/

 

[Toller]

That’s too much money! Something has to be wrong there.

I'm paying £72 ($100) a month for non-metered water because there is nowhere to fit a water meter in my supply pipe or in the house.

 

[Laron]

Though I quite enjoy building my own PC's and running them with Linux desktops (got fed up with Windoze).

I used linux quite extensively when I was younger, work and home, but stick with Windows these days. The last PC I built was last year.

Here's a photo of the inside I just took. (not liquid cooled or anything too fancy)​

Also I've read that in California, people are attacking self-driving cars.

Here's one story covering that.

"So far in 2018, there have been only six reported traffic incidents involving self-driving vehicles in California, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. But of those six incidents, two involved angry, violent Californians going up to the futuristic cars on San Francisco streets and attacking. The first incident started on Jan. 2 around 9:30 p.m., when a pedestrian saw a self-driving Chevrolet Bolt at 16th and Valencia Streets in the city’s Mission District. The vehicle was stopped at a green light as it waited for other pedestrians to cross the street.
But then the onlooker “ran across Valencia Street, against the ‘do not walk’ symbol, shouting, and struck the left side of the ... rear bumper and hatch with his entire body,” according to a California DMV incident report." (Source)

Don’t get them! They are useless and constantly give out false readings.

I remember Clif High talking about these because of how bad the wifi/radiation is for people. He mentioned you can just stick tin foil over them to stop the signals. (I'm never come across them outside the US)

 

[Lila]

Lila,

I came across this report on Ars Technica:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/self-driving-cars-have-been-assaulted-twice-so-far-this-year-in-san-francisco/

Whoah! 58 reports total of people using their bodies to slam into the car. That is one angry population
Flesh vs metal or glass: ouch!

Funny how it was reported that there were no human injuries but that one of the cars "sustained some damage to its left rear light" and another, a scratch.

Interesting, too, that it was required by law that the companies of the self-driving cars are required by law to report such incidents to the Dept of Motor Vehicles (DMV). I wonder, if that were not the case, would we ever hear of these incidents?
Seems to me that whoever wrote that law was thinking quite far ahead

Thanks, @Toller

 

[Toller]

I used linux quite extensively when I was younger, work and home, but stick with Windows these days. The last PC I built was last year.

I had a light inside my previous one. I've been looking to build my next one recently, but memory and graphics card prices are sky high at the moment, too many are building bitcoin mining rigs at the moment.

I remember Clif High talking about these because of how bad the wifi/radiation is for people. He mentioned you can just stick tin foil over them to stop the signals. (I'm never come across them outside the US)

I rarely turn wifi on on my router, only if I want to update my 10 year old laptop. I don't even own a mobile phone, makes it difficult to fill in some online forms which insist on a mobile phone number. My only venture into android was with the purchase of a Tesco Hudl which I used to use with a Google chromecast for a couple of hours once a week. Then I bought a blu-ray player and discovered I could store all my videos downloaded from youtube and the BBC on it.

 

[Toller]

The blu-ray player is also a recorder with a large hard disk. I keep a lot of music there as well (saves looking for the CD's).
There are plenty of Firefox extensions for downloading videos, but if you don't mind using the terminal there are:-

youtube-dl
http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

get-iplayer
https://www.squarepenguin.co.uk/