Technologies like Siri and Alexa are readily able to discern what people say in dozens of languages, not to mention carry out the commands that people tell these digital personal assistants and voice command technologies. Siri and Alexa, for example, are each able to be used by hundreds of millions of Americans thanks to so many people owning iPhones, other Apple devices, and Amazon Home gadgets.
The only way to develop these technologies is for employees of Apple, Amazon, and other tech companies to manually listen to what people say in their interactions with such technologies, write code that makes it possible for tech devices to discern what people are saying, and go back and determine how well these technologies are at discerning what people say and make changes – if they’re necessary – to such technologies to improve them.
In recent months, news has come out about how companies such as Apple spy on people’s personal, private conversations and interactions with technologies such as Siri. It’s clear that Apple doesn’t listen to everything that its device owners say to Siri, though the company’s employees do, in fact, listen to quite a few intimate conversations that people have with other people and directly with devices such as iPhones and technologies such as Siri.
According to a recent report published by Vice earlier today, on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, Microsoft tasks hundreds, if not thousands, of independent contractors with listening to what people say while using Skype, one of the world’s most popular voice and video communication technologies.
This news comes as a result of Vice’s very own Motherboard getting its hands on tons of screenshots, audio recordings of these independent contractors’ conversations, and top-secret, confidential in-house documents.
Right now, according to Skype’s official website, Microsoft does not indicate that living humans will be called upon to analyze the heaps of audio that Skype transmits from one user to another on a regular basis. Rather, Skype only indicates that artificial intelligence will be responsible for going over such information. However, as mentioned above, it is more than clear that Microsoft hires independent contractors to go over such information that is transmitted through Skype calls.
Further, independent contractors are also hired by Microsoft to go over voice commands that are carried out by its devices’ users in their attempts to use Cortana, the voice-based personal assistant that belongs to Microsoft.
Dil Bole Oberoi
