Slashdot Mirror
Burger King Runs Ad Triggering Google Home Devices; Google Shuts It Down (theverge.com)
Burger King unveiled a new advertisement earlier today designed to trigger users' Google Home devices. The ad specifically used the Google Home trigger phrase "Okay, Google" to ask "What is the Whopper burger?," thus triggering the Google Assistant to read off the top result from Wikipedia. But less than three hours after Burger King launched the ad, Google disabled the functionality. The Verge reports: As of 2:45PM ET, Google Home will no longer respond when prompted by the specific Burger King commercial that asks "What is the Whopper burger?" It does, however, still respond with the top result from Wikipedia when someone else (i.e., a real user) other than the advertisement asks the same question. Google has likely registered the sound clip from the ad to disable unwanted Home triggers, as it does with its own Google Home commercials.
Google can already do strict voice recognition, so I expect in the near future newer devices will have this enabled all the time by default to prevent things like this... also, so they can tie queries to specific people for data mining purposes, of course.
Wow. A smart home sounds like an awful lot of money for very little benefit. I honestly never cared for all the gimmicky stuff individually, and thought perhaps the synergy of it all would add up to something more, but... literally everything you described, I have alternatives for that don't require a smart house.
I have a programmable thermostat -- very versatile, and no need for a Nest. I have friends with a Nest... and they aren't all that impressed with it even after months of training it. I have an android tablet with blutooth speakers, so I can get 90% of the voice activated features you listed just by... carrying it around with me. Smart plugs don't excite me -- they didn't even back when they operated on "the clapper." I have a remote for a power strip for a room with no overhead light, and it suits me fine. The smart lock is interesting, but I'm wary of an IoT device that also has wireless keys as I know thieves copy wireless car signals to pop trunks and open garage doors. I have an alarm system, and it tells me whether or not all the doors and windows are shut (though not whether they're locked!) The Phillips Hue bulbs... it's a nice gimmick to sell LED bulbs for 3 to 5 times the price of their competitors to sync with IoT or TV shows, but... I just don't see the appeal. Perhaps if I had a basement theater room like another family member had, I could install the fancy bulbs for a more engrossing experience. As for TVs and remotes... The Harmony is an excellent remote -- but, I have no need for it... b/c I don't watch TV on cable anymore... not directly anyway. My TVs are basically monitors for laptops which display streaming media -- including Charter's Spectrum web streaming for my cable service. So, there's no need to flip channels, it's just point and click & I can use the app on my tablet to switch channels on my boxes or set the DVR anyway.
I'm sure smart homes are the future, but I see a better version down the line that makes the current IoT setup look like child's play. And, just fyi, every device you add to a wireless network degrades the quality of the network for all other devices within range with overlapping frequencies b/c for most wifi setups, only one device can truly talk at a time, and when two or more talk at once, they both shut up and then re-broadcast at a new random interval. So, IoT with dozens of wifi connections... really crappy wireless network quality.
I'll wait 'til we have personal AI that isn't cloud-based, but home-based and has privacy protections and my interests at heart rather than the company that sold it to me... and wired network connections wherever possible!
Are you likely to use the phrase 'ok google' before asking your friend a random question? No. Not unless you are attempting to trigger his Google home device without permission.
"Ok google how to find nude pics and tell me I'm wrong"
Just another second banana