I work for Amazon.

This has been the case for many years. Amazon has used AI in Alexa and other services for many years as primary providers, and has told it's users it's used it's data for as long. We're talking from close to inception here, so 6-7 years, at least. Hell, LLM's aren't even new to most big tech companies!

I'm all for privacy, but if you want privacy then you probably shouldn't have a fucking tin can in your house that actions every conversation to a cloud service!

They literally tell you when you go through setup.

I gItz NufIN Ti HIIIDE

You can have a privacy-first smart home. I have. I run Home Assistant in a docker container. No external services/plugins. My smart doorbell streams to my local nvr. If my internet is down, everything keeps working. And it's not even that hard anymore. It's become a lot easier over the last 2-3 years. Still not for non-techie users, but a lot better.

I'm with you. I hate how they expect me to control everything from my phone or with voice commands. I'm fine walking to a light switch or walking to the thermostat.

I think most people, me included, underestimate the scale of the operation. When you hear "company will use private data to do X", you imagine what a reasonable person would do, like random sample a few conversations here and there. In reality they record everything permanently over months and years, far beyond what would be necessary to run the service.

It's kind of crazy how we get this level of surveillance while still having software that will lose your data if you don't hit Save often enough.

I brings me joy when I tell her "Alexa, shut up you dumb bitch" and then she responds with that sad minor tone dejected sound.

Well I know I have no expectation of privacy here, but I'd rather open source LLMs train on my words along with proprietary ones, than some company hoarding information and selling it to each other.

I love being able to dictate a grocery list but god damn is she stupid.

Good luck asking for cream cheese and chive crackers without ending up with cream cheese as one item and chive crackers as another. Or worse peanut butter and honey crackers as peanut butter and then honey crackers

Obviously. How else would it hear you say, "Alexa?"

I'd love a citation on this, outside of wakeword usage (a local device waiting for "Alexa* to begin recording).