How would they tell whether their models are right or wrong without listening and having someone compare?
I see nothing in this article to suggest the clips they're listening to are related to an always-on microphone.
It's everything after the product thinks you said "Alexa".
“OK, Google patent 9,876,543 and see if we’re infringing.”
or if my colleague is named Alexa…
“Alexa, let’s hammer those idiots.”
I think the first would wake Google Home. I guess Alexa lets you change the wake word to ‘echo’ or ‘computer’. It would be better if it let you use something arbitrary like ‘Rumplestiltskin’
IP leakage or potential misunderstandings don’t seem so improbable to me. Especially if the listeners in (from OP Bloomberg article) in Costa Rica, India, or Romania aren’t au courant with “hammer those idiots” as English idiom in context.
Coincidentally, this is how my wife discovered and fixed a filler word habit of "Ok, good, well..."
It is interesting that while there are several manufacturers, all of them opt-in users as testers by default, no matter what product you choose. So maybe such market needs a little stricter regulation.
For an example of accidental triggering, look up news on "Alexa creepy laughter".
If they can't do it, maybe their product shouldn't exist yet.
unlike the location history where I understand the use case and maybe search history. but all those should be disabled by default.