According to a recent report, a bug in Google Home smart speakers allowed for the installation of a backdoor account that could be used to control the device and access its microphone feed. In short, hackers could take over Google’s devices to spy on users by listening in on their conversations.
Researchers at the University of Washington have reportedly found a new way to screen for irregular heartbeats — using smart speakers such as the Amazon Alexa or Google Home to detect variations in heart rhythms.
Silicon Valley tech giant Google has suspended the integration of some of its hardware and services with Chinese company Xiaomi after a user who connected a Xiaomi camera to his Google Home Hub revealed that he was able to see into other users’ homes, including sleeping children.
Numerous high-profile pages on Wikidata, a data site affiliated with Wikipedia, contained long-standing defamatory vandalism according to criticism site Wikipediocracy. This included First Lady Melania Trump, who was labeled a “former sex worker and porn star” on Wikidata for more than a week. Many Wikipedia-affiliated sites use Wikidata’s information, so the description consequently appeared at her page on Simple Wikipedia, whose target audience expressly includes children, and remained for over a week.
The Daily Mail reported that home assistants could soon report their owners to the police for breaking the law based on a “Moral A.I.” system, if the ideas of academics in Europe are implemented.
Google Home A.I. assistant devices will reportedly notice if owners say “please” and “thank you,” and will give more cheery replies, as part of a newly implemented feature called “pretty please.”
Home assistants are creepy and terrifying. Don’t buy them.
Amazon Echo and Google Home A.I. assistant devices are scaring their owners with unprompted statements.
When asked about the headlines at Breitbart News, the Google Assistant read off an anti-Breitbart hitpiece from the Huffington Post.
Patents filed by Google and Amazon hint at further monitoring from devices and home assistants in the future.
