Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for August 23, 2022

An issue that should be in the spotlight more

Now that Amazon has bought Roomba, you have to worry about a device that follows you around.

Those devices are not really using AI. Not even close.

This is why I will never let any of those other assistant devices into my house. My phone is enough and creepy enough. Just need to figure out a practical way to disable snooper mode without having to turn it off and/or encase it in a safe and/or turn a room into a Faraday Cage.

There’s no possible way I’d PAY for the “privilege” of having a spy in my home.

“Hey, Alexa, hit yourself with a big hammer and throw yourself in the trash…”

As I said yesterday in another strip, Alexa is a (female dog). And Siri, too.

I’m not worried about AI gathering information about us and then using it against us, I’m worried about AI gathering information and businesses and politicians using it against us.

But that ship has sailed a long time ago.

I always say “thank you,” and “goodnight” to Alexa, so she’ll remember I’m nice to her- just in case. lol. :D

3 words to the world….

“PULL THE PLUG”.

You’ll be happy later on that you did.

Don’t like ‘em. Consider them insidious and intrusive. Don’t trust the mfg’s to handle the info sensibly. And especially don’t trust any agency that might gain access to their data for whatever reason. Call me slightly biased :} )

Well! I think you ingrates are all being very paranoid and rude … and … not nice to our AI companions! [Posted from my personalized Skinner box, as a reward pellet drops down into my tray.]

Me thinks Alexa is Big Brother or maybe Big Brother’s mother??

I like to confuse the bots. I will search for a bush hog, women’s shoes, routers (the computer kind), routers (the carpentry kind), exoplanets and the occasional sex toy along with occasional furniture.

Now that I posted this I will see ads for farming equipment women’s shoes, computer equipment … for the rest of the week.

You’d expect this ‘’alexa/siri’’ gimmick to have run it’s course by now … not yet.

do it, do it, do it! short circuit the talking cup thing. :D

My refrigerator, microwave, and toaster aren’t speaking to me. I think it’s something I said.

I don’t have a problem with any of these devices. I don’t have these devices.

It’s not just for marketing. The VAST amount of verbiage these systems are taking in are being used to make them “better.” Better with understanding human speech patterns, better with understanding tone, emotions, behaviors, etc.

While Wiley has comedically improved the level of AI in Alexa, it’s true that they are not AI. Not yet. All these systems, Alexa, Google, Siri, and all the others are “cloudsourcing” the evolution. Hopefully benevolent.

Fun fact: when the P-3 Orion was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island by a collision with a Chinese fighter, part of their emergency “declassification” procedures involved pouring hot coffee into all the computers in the cabin.

I vaguely recall a comic strip where two people are outdoors, one reading a newspaper. The one reading tells his friend that, according to an article, the US has satellites that can read a newspaper on the ground from space. He says that sounds pretty far-fetched to him. Then a phone rings. The person with the newspaper answers it and hears “This is NASA. Can you go back a page? I hadn’t finished the article”.

Face it. With a warrent they have ready made bugs in millions of homes and on millions of people. Wouldn’t it be ironic if someone put a bug in an android or iPhone?

Ever since the 50s (and possibly before that), when Eisenhower figured out that the quickest way to get the economy going again after the wars was to encourage people to ‘buy, buy, buy’, Americans have been viewed as consumers, not customers, by a business world whose primary goal is to make money. Our role is to keep them making money. So every strategy possible is used to convince people that they need ‘new’, need to upgrade, need to stay in style, need to buy products to lose weight fast, need to have pills to stay healthy, need to drink this, eat that, do this, look like that to have fun, be popular, live happily ever after.

Buy now, pay later. Lay away plan. Buy one, get one free. Bundle these three items together and get $1 off. No money down. Super Sales. Black Friday. Why is it so surprising that big business would use AI to find out how to get us to buy more? They have already erased the line between ‘want’ and ‘need’.

I would suggest that we act like lemmings in our rush to buy the newest and ‘hottest’ things; but, in actuality, lemmings do not follow a leader over a cliff in a mass suicide. That was a staged device in Disney’s 1958 ‘’White Wilderness’, designed to make the film more exciting for viewers. [I won’t call it a nature documentary because it doesn’t document nature.] The lemmings were imported to the scene and people chased them toward the cliff. Not Disney’s finest hour.

One of my stepsons has an Alexi system. I constantly mess with it when I’m at his house. It recognizes my voice and will respond to commands in Spanish, but I often give it commands in English which it will sometimes respond to, but when I speak in Irish it really gets confused.

Is that you Grumpy?

Too much truth to be really funny.

It never ceases to amaze me that people let these devices into their houses and use them. If you’re that stupid, you get what you deserve.

The Minority Report world has arrived.

Should we really call it intelligent gathering when referring to the Human Race?

Strange conversation with Alexa. The other day I passed gas. And Alexa said, “I did not understand your request”. I laughed and replied, “I’m not talking to you”.

Thanks to all who posted links.

The first mistake was getting it!

Google and amazon have been eavesdropping for years, I dont use either

I would not have one of these things in my house, NO WAY

Gathering intelligence is CIA talk for getting information. Don’t confuse the usage of intelligence.

My wife and I were talking about buying a new Screen Door awhile back, later I picked up my “Smartphone “ to find Facebook loaded with Ads for them. My phone was off next to my chair, kinda freaked me out.

Now the Alexa device may have a chance to be repaired. Siri, I’m not so sure. My cat expressed its displeasure on my laptop keyboard a couple of years ago. I went to the store with the people-who-are-way-smarter-than-you and was told that they won’t repair anything with “organic liquid damage”. If said person was true to their title they would know that organic chemicals have carbon in them. That would include coffee and any sweetened drinks. So had that been Siri the would be SOL.

Alexa, meet Joe! Joe, meet Alexa!

The problem with artificial intelligence these days is two-fold:

it will reach biased conclusions based on whatever biases pre-exist in the training database

it will not be able to tell you how it achieved its results

Both problems are being worked but the first one may be insurmountable, as there are no “culture-free” datasets.

It’s okay, I married one, so I’m on their side now. Oh, sorry about the rest of you. Muah ha ha ha.

I think I’ve posted this before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OgMQlLsQek&t=35s