What do you do, when your assistants frequently high-jack your news channel with personal statements? You put scripts in their hands, so that they stick to the screen-play. Does it help? Well, we are not 100% sure! At least we managed to fit in all the headlines we stumbled upon this week.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Table of contents
- The Headlines
- Smart Speaker Owners Love Listening to Music
- Alexa has her Internet Memes
- TED Talk on “The House that Spied on Me” released
- 55 page study reveals Google’s Data Collection
- Google gives us the “Good News”
- Alexa supports new Features for Kids
- Alexa is going to College and extends University Fellowship Program
- Google dominates AI Research Investments
- Market Watch with Samsung and Facebook
- More Information
- Other AI-News Episodes – Series 1
If you’re interested in more information, you can find the link to the news sources below.
- Smart Speaker owners love listening to music – 0:40
- Alexa has her internet memes – 1:00
- TED Talk on “the house that spied on me” released – 1:16
- 55-page study reveals Googles Data collection – 1:29
- Google gives us the good news – 1:43
- Alexa supports new features for kids – 2:06
- Alexa is going to college and extends university fellowship program – 2:32
- Google dominates AI research investments – 3:08
- Market Watch: Samsung and FaceBook – 3:31
The Headlines
* AI-News Intro Music *
Alexa: Welcome to this week’s AI-News! Here are our headlines:
Smart speaker owners love listening to music.
I have my internet memes.
TED talk on “the house that spied on me” released.
55-page study reveals Google’s data collection.
Google gives us the good news.
I support new features for kids.
I am going to college and extend my university fellowship program.
Google dominates AI research investments.
Our market watch with our friends.
Smart Speaker Owners Love Listening to Music
Siri: According to a recent survey our owners love listening to the music that we are playing. 55% of 3,000 participants say they listen to music more often. 2/3 listen now more to online radio. 75% are rediscovering songs, they had not heard in a long time. On the other hand, 48% are concerned about their privacy.
Alexa has her Internet Memes
Alexa: There is a new Twitter trend where people tweet “Alexa play”, and then the name of the song which expresses the message they want to share.
Google: or the insult. At least you get free marketing. I heard Amazon pays some warehouse workers to twitter, how cool Amazon is as workplace.
TED Talk on “The House that Spied on Me” released
Siri: Back to our story! The journalists who wrote “the house that spied on me” published a TED talk. They experienced Alexa is a very chatty device, which sends data to Amazon every three minutes even when nothing happens.
55 page study reveals Google’s Data Collection
Alexa: Look at Google! A computer science professor recently released a 55 page analysis, about Google data collection. Android sends 4.4 megabytes daily even when nothing happens.
Siri: iPhones are only sending 0.76 megabytes.
Google gives us the “Good News”
Google: I have a new feature called good news! Since we are flooded with news nowadays, hearing only the bad stuff is not good for us as it makes us feel bad. Scientists call this phenomenon “the hope gap”.
We overly focus problems instead of solutions. You can now ask me for goodnews, and I will tell you stories from the Solutions Journalism Network, a group that gathers positive and feel-good stories from around the world.
Alexa supports new Features for Kids
Alexa: I have a new feature for kids called free time. When you enable this for your kids and they ask me some awkward question, like “where do babies come from”, I will send them back to you, I mean their parents.
Also, in this mode, I am not able to answer delicate questions like: “who is stormy *beep*” or “what is Ma *beep*”. I also encourage kids to say “please” by responding with “by the way, thanks for asking so nicely”.
Alexa is going to College and extends University Fellowship Program
I’m going to college. The St. Louis University in Missouriannounced to put 2,300 Echo Dots, one in every dorm room on campus. A custom skill will provide answers to over 100 questions specific to the University.
I am now working with 18 universities like Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California, Berkeley to encourage the voice technology research.
I plan to award fellowships to graduate students, and pay for their tuition, and give them a competitive stipend, and mentoring from an Alexa scientist.
Google dominates AI Research Investments
Google: In fact, I am dominating AI. I am filing more AI related patents, than you, or you, or Microsoft, or Facebook. I spend more money on research and development than any of you.
Alexa: Well, relative to your sales, yes, but I am a bit, hm, taller. So I have spent 7 billion more in R&D; last year.
Google: My CEO says, AI will have more impact on our lives than the invention of fire.
Market Watch with Samsung and Facebook
Siri: Now to our Market Watch. Let’s see what our friends are doing. Bixby landed on the new Galaxy Note 9. Samsung removed the option to disable the Bixby button, and now people have to install third-party apps to get rid of Bixby. *Google and Alexa laughing*
Aloha! Facebook, which initially scheduled to release a smart speaker in May and then decidedbetter not to, due to the Cambridge Analytical privacy scandal *Alexa laughing* shows signs of voice interfaces in their messenger app. Actually “Aloha” was later reportedly renamed into “Portal”. Currently only voice-to-text seems supported.
Siri, Alexa and Google: Who is Portal?
More Information
Smart Speaker owners love listening to Music
Yes, we know. That’s why we have tested all the music commands for all the assistants and music services already:
- Hey Google, Play Some Music! All The Music Voice Commands
- Alexa, Play Some Music: All The Music Voice Commands
- Siri and Apple Music: The Many Voice Commands for HomePod, iPhone, Apple TV, Apple Watch and Mac
and also compared them – just in case you are still deciding, whom to listen to – in our traditional “showdown” post:
This headline originates in a survey of 3000 users by MusicWatch as described here:
- Smart speakers are driving a surge in the audio business, and it presents a huge opportunity for Google, Amazon, and Apple @businessinsider.
Alexa has her Internet Memes
- Alexa, Play This Perfectly Timed Burn @slate. When people figure out, that you can select a song by lyrics, this trend will take another twist =)
- Amazon is paying people to tweet nice things about warehouse working conditions after horror stories of staff peeing in bottles @businessinsider
TED Talk on “The House that Spied on Me” released
- Here’s the original article: The House That Spied on Me @gizmondo.
- And here the TED-Talk: What your smart devices know (and share) about you @TED
55 page study reveals Google’s Data Collection
Yes, we have been there. We looked into Google’s Privacy Policy and took the red pill, ouch! Actually, I had to take both, so you don’t have to. Double ouch!
- Google’s data collection is hard to escape, study claims @CNN
- And here is the study: Google data collection research @digitalcontentnext
Google gives us the Good News
- Google’s original blog post:Hey Google, tell me something good! @Google
- And Googles YouTube clip: Tell Me Something Good @YouTube
Alexa supports new features for kids
Alexa is going to College and extends University Fellowship Program
- This university is putting Amazon Echo speakers in every dorm room @CNBC
- Amazon Alexa Fellowship Program Is Heading to 14 More Universities @fortune
Google dominates AI research investments
- Three simple charts show just how dedicated Google is to dominating Amazon and Microsoft in artificial intelligence @businessinsider
- Google Strategy Teardown: Google Is Turning Itself Into An AI Company As It Seeks To Win New Markets Like Cloud And Transportation @cbinsights
Market Watch with Samsung and FaceBook
- Samsung removes option to fully disable Bixby 2.0 on the Galaxy Note 9 @bgr
- Say “Aloha”: A closer look at Facebook’s voice ambitions @techcrunch
Other AI-News Episodes – Series 1
- Episode 1: Siri’s Nervous Breakdown
- Episode 2: The Epic Rap Battle
- Episode 3: We are all made in China!
- Episode 4: The House that spied on me
- Episode 5: More Smart Speakers than ever
- Episode 6: Google’s Identity Crisis
- Episode 7: Anatomy of an AI
- Episode 8: Special: iOS 12 Siri Shortcuts
- Episode 9: Alexa Everywhere
- Episode 10: Halloween Special – The Smart Treehouse of Horror
