Voice-activated technology only as dangerous as you let it be

OPINION: We were shocked when we discovered our smart TVs might be eavesdropping on us. But there’s a simple way to ensure our sweet nothings don’t become public property.

IN AN age of voice-activated technology, some things might be best left unsaid.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been driving around with Siri riding shotgun as I take Apple CarPlay through its paces.

When I want to text my wife, I say: “Hey Siri, text my wife”. When I want to drive home, I say: “Hey Siri, navigate home.” And when I want to amuse myself, I say “Hey Siri, you cannot be siri-ous.”

And Siri, like any good partner, does her best to meet my needs.

She texts my wife, she guides me home and she responds to my pun play with, “Yes. I’m not allowed to be frivolous.”

And if I get a text while driving, she does what any thoughtful car buddy would do and offers to read my texts aloud to me. In terms of driver safety, it’s a great system. In terms of communication in the era of emoji, you’re driving into new territory with a few potholes along the way.

If a picture can say 1000 words, then an emoji never shuts up. But things can get lost in translation.

Siri read out a text from my wife. “Face with heart shaped eyes,” Siri said in that robotic voice that only a robotic mother could love. “Smiling pile of poo,” she continued (describing, for those not steeped in piles of emojis, the symbol that someone’s not having a great day).

The challenges of living in a voice-controlled world were highlighted last week.

First, there was the video of the Italian grandma who had as much luck chatting up Siri that I would have chatting up Mother Teresa.

Then there was the outcry last week that smart televisions might be spying on us. In what sounded like an updated version of the old sketch Who’s On First?, TV reporters probed pundits on this outrage who struggled to get across the point that voice-activated devices, from smartphones to smart TVs, do listen to your voice because that is what they do butyou can turn off.

“You’re telling me voice-controlled TVs listen to what you’re saying?” interviewers demanded.

“Yes. They’re voice-controlled televisions. They listen to what you’re saying,” the tech experts patiently explained.

“What if I say something worth listening to?”

“Well, based on these questions, it seems unlikely.”

The thing with voice-controlled devices is that they need to hear a prompt.

With Samsung smart TVs the command is “Hi TV”, which activates the TV into recording the voice and sending that commence off to the cloud to analyse what you say.

If you say “Hi TV, change to Channel 9” then your TV has a half-decent chance of making your wish a command.

But if you saw “Hi, TV is crap tonight” then the TV will ignore the command or perhaps assume you’re a fan of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here.

Smart devices that listen to you can be helpful or frustrating or something in between, but they don’t care what you’re saying.

If you don’t want to talk to your machines, just say no. And leave it to me, because I like nothing better than when Siri sweet-talks me with a smile and a wink.

Originally published as Voice-activated technology only as dangerous as you let it be