
Phrases that incorrectly trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant - BerislavLopac
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/07/uncovered-1000-phrases-that-incorrectly-trigger-alexa-siri-and-google-assistant/
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xnx
Might try switching to "ok, cool" for Google Assistant since "hey google" is
one of the most awkward/ugly sounding phrases to have to repeat over and over.

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zellyn
After saying “hey sweetie” to my baby girl and triggering Siri for the
thousandth time, I'm _wishing_ for “Ok Google”…

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changoplatanero
Someone on the Alexa team told me that they had false triggers from the phrase
'put your pajamas on" sounding like Amazon.

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jilles
I love this.

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css
My partner and I speak Chinese and English at home and I cannot tell you how
many times random Chinese phrases trigger my Homepod (set to listen for
English).

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acwan93
The trigger phrase for Mandarin Siri is “嘿 Siri”, so anything involving black
something would most likely trigger it.

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tzs
I'm surprised at how sensitive they can be. I was listening to "Wait Wait...
Don't Tell Me!" on NPR one morning in my living room, at a fairly low volume.

I noticed that there was music coming from my kitchen. My Google Home Mini
that serves as a kitchen timer was playing a Frank Sinatra song. According to
the logs it heard someone say "Hey Google, play some Sinatra".

I was surprised that it would hear a low volume radio in the living room from
the kitchen. Also, even if it thought it heard "Hey Google", there was nothing
that should have sounded like "play some Sinatra".

The Echo Dot in my living room puzzles me in the opposite direction. Amazon
runs TV commercials advertising Alexa and Amazon Music that consist of some
song by a particular artist playing over some animation of a singing mouth,
then the music stops and the mouth says "Alexa, play <artist> on Amazon
Music".

That frequently triggers the Dot, but only once has it actually then played
music in response. Here we have it hearing a clear "Alexa", triggering, and
somehow realizing that it should not actually do the command. How does it
know?

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tyingq
Apparently, there's a regularly updated local datastore with signatures of
currently running commercials with wake words in them:
[https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/31/why-alexa-usually-wont-
re...](https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/31/why-alexa-usually-wont-respond-when-
someone-says-alexa-on-tv/)

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dasil003
The one that triggers Siri most often in my home is "Are you serious?". My
wife says that to me all the time.

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artificial
"Seriously" is the word which constantly triggers Siri for me. I feel your
pain.

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oli5679
I've heard that Google WFH during pandemic has lead to funny Google Assistant
issues.

Since many Googlers have on in their kitchen, mentioning 'Google' on a call
often triggers a chain reaction.

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kps
For Google devices, in the Home app under Device settings → Accessibility, set
‘Start sound on, end sound on’. Then you know exactly when it's active.

The examples in the article don't work for me, but “Hey Booboo” (as in picnic
basket) is pretty reliable.

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saalweachter
If you want to collect phrases that trigger Google, just drive around
listening to books on Audible through Android Auto.

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blinding-streak
Side note: One side effect of covid I've been thinking about is the fact that
usage of these voice assistants will grow from people being at home, and
alone, a lot more.

I never even thought about using one before the virus, primarily due to the
fact I was usually around people, and it was either impractical or
embarrassing to ask Alexa, Siri, or Google to do something for me. But now,
like millions of others, I'm stuck at home all day and it's actually quite
natural to take advantage of the voice features.

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mdorazio
Out of curiosity, what do you use it for that you didn't before? I've
personally found voice assistants to have an extremely limited set of use
cases that are actually faster or more convenient than pulling out my phone.

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woriuweflksdncn
Quick conversions in the kitchen ("what's 1/3 cup to tablespoons?"),
controlling smart home features ("turn on the living room lights", "tell the
thermostat I'm hot"), getting weather forecasts ("what's the weather today?"),
etc. I've found the use cases increase the longer you have one.

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xhroot
So if I go down the IOT aisle at Best Buy and say

"Ok, who is reading a city in Montana a letter?"

everything will light up?

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thelazydogsback
Especially coming from spending years in the ASR industry and having several
Alexa devices at home, I find the false-positive rate remarkably low given how
high the accuracy is for the wake-word and server-side reco, even from quite
far away. (The whisper-to/whisper-back feature is also freaky, and actually
found myself using it the other night so as to not wake up my son.)

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sib
> the false-positive rate remarkably low given how high the accuracy is for
> the wake-word

This was a major focus of the speech science team... product team and
leadership identified very early that the bias had to be in this direction to
build trust. Also the reason there is a visual signal and an (optional) audio
signal for "wake up" and a mics-off button.

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yegle
"Cocaine Noodle" can reliably trigger Google Home from my test.

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cromka
And still less awkward than "Hey Google".

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walterbell
There are electronic timers with one-button activation for a fixed period of
time (15/30/60/120 mins), which can be used to avoid voice assistants
listening 7/24.

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gumby
I attended a Passover last year and when the some of the people used the word
Elijah, an Alexa in the room would respond. They were all from NYC, FWIW.

I’d never heard of “Elijah” so asked the Alexa for an explanation, which we
got. Followed by some work-related notifications for the host. (Luckily
nothing confidential was uttered, it seems)

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Skunkleton
"Hey, Sarah" works around 80% of the time. Not surprising. Still a pain when
your wife is named Sarah.

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stronglikedan
I set all my Alexa devices to wake to "echo" first thing. Echo Auto has been
rendered useless to me, because (last I checked) it doesn't allow changing the
wake word. It's impossible to listen to radio without triggering "alexa'
during every single commercial break.

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perryizgr8
Seems to me Alexa got it better than any other. It's easy to say and not
awkward like "Hey Google", and I can speak my command in a flow without
pausing. Shame that the AI backing it is quite possibly the worst among its
contemporaries.

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ogre_codes
Our cat's name "KJ" triggers "Hey Siri" frequently, usually when my wife says
it. Seems like such an odd cross connect.

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scott_s
"In theory" triggers Siri for me often.

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vikramkr
In your accent, do you pronounce it as "in thee-uh-ree/thee-oh-ree" or "in
thee-ree?" If the later the vowels might be overlapping with the vowels in
siri?

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scott_s
More "in thee-ree." I'm not surprised at all by it, as for me, "Hey, Sirir" is
definitely close to "In theory."

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ARandomerDude
I turned off Google Assistant for this reason. I say "ok cool" often enough
that it became a source of frustration.

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hellofunk
This happened to me just yesterday when I said to someone, “are you serious?“
And Siri came on and asked me for follow up.

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freehunter
I say “are you serious” probably way too often and it almost always triggers
Siri.

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photojosh
We named our dog Sami. HomePod triggers probably every 2-3 days.

A shower triggers the Apple Watch Hey Siri probably once a week.

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vmception
Somehow Playstation 4 has flown under the radar, it is the most finicky!

I should probably turn its voice control off

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lowdose
Si, Si, is apparently number 1 in Spanish speaking communities for incorrectly
triggering Siri.

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myopenid2
Ok boomer works on the GH too

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DaniloDias
Ars jumps the shark. Uncovered is the word used in this headline? Really? Good
lord who are the losers that go into tech journalism. How is there any money
left to pay these click baiters?

