Amazon Event - New Echo/Alexa Devices Announced

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by haertig

The day I fear, and I think it may already be here, is when someone can come up to your house and scream into the window, "Alexa, unlock the front door." And, ... she will !

Alexa: "What's the security code?"

Bad Guy: remains silent

Alexa: "Again, what's the security code? You have 10 seconds to say it. Failure to do so will result in my releasing the dogs. 10 - 9 - 8 - 7..."

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It will be very quiet and peaceful here for a looong time yet. All those smart thingies will probably never understand my native language in my lifetime, if ever (less than 1 million speakers, so who will bother.). Oh well. Fewer things to worry about.

Is Estonian related to Finnish?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Is Estonian related to Finnish?

Yes, pretty closely.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, pretty closely.

Thanks - is there any mutual intelligibility between the two?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Thanks - is there any mutual intelligibility between the two?

Somewhat, as in quite a lot of words are similar, but many more aren't. If a Finnish native speaker has had no previous contact with the Estonian language at all, he/she would probably not understand much, and vice versa. Finnish also totally nativized most of their loanwords in the past (less so nowadays), but Estonians didn't and that makes mutual understanding much more difficult (for example, phone is telefon (from telephone) in Estonian, but puhelin (from puhe - speech) in Finnish).

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It will be very quiet and peaceful here for a looong time yet. All those smart thingies will probably never understand my native language in my lifetime, if ever (less than 1 million speakers, so who will bother.). Oh well. Fewer things to worry about.

Oh, I wouldn't bet against it.
Your government has fully embraced digital technologies as a way to leapfrog into the 21st century and one of the things advanced "AI" is actually good at is parsing language.

I expect you'll get full support long before other languages with bigger population bases, if nothing else because of all your tech startups and digital citizens.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Somewhat, as in quite a lot of words are similar, but many more aren't. If a Finnish native speaker has had no previous contact with the Estonian language at all, he/she would probably not understand much, and vice versa. Finnish also totally nativized most of their loanwords in the past (less so nowadays), but Estonians didn't and that makes mutual understanding much more difficult (for example, phone is telefon (from telephone) in Estonian, but puhelin (from puhe - speech) in Finnish).

Sounds like spanish vs Portuguese. Or italian. Just enough similarity to trip you up?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Oh, I wouldn't bet against it.
Your government has fully embraced digital technologies as a way to leapfrog into the 21st century and one of the things advanced "AI" is actually good at is parsing language.

I expect you'll get full support long before other languages with bigger population bases, if nothing else because of all your tech startups and digital citizens.

Thank you for your comforting words. Or... should I be alarmed instead?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Alexa: "Again, what's the security code? You have 10 seconds to say it. Failure to do so will result in my releasing the dogs. 10 - 9 - 8 - 7..."

First rule of Robotics: Alexa may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

The first rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

First rule of Robotics: Alexa may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

The first rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club.

Alexa isn't a robot.
It isn't even an actual AI. It's s just a voice recognition front end to a database, feeding trigger commands to low end gadgets. No positronic brains involved.

On the other hand, the Russians are building Bolos.
They're actually building killer robot tanks.
Because there is no way that can go wrong, like Chechen separatists hacking their "AI".

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by haertig

None from the "no experience with it" group thus far

I belong to this group, and I want to thank you haertig for your post. It’s good advice explained in a simple way. I always wander how many people simply plug it and use it without thinking about security, I understand same people (many off mobileread readers will be in this category) know how to protect their networks, but I believe the common user doesn’t, so at least your post makes them think about it, and maybe do something to try to learn or at least take precautions.
And by the way I don’t own or use alexa.