Apple and Google Suspend Human Voice Grading for Virtual Assistants
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| Apple and Google Suspend Human Voice Grading for Virtual Assistants | |
| Number | 906 |
| Broadcast Date | AUGUST 2, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 5:34 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Google and Apple announce that human review of clips from virtual assistants are suspended pending a privacy review, the US FCC approves rules for more accurate ISP broadband maps, and the US FTC is investigating Facebook’s acquisitions.
Headlines
- Apple and Google announced they have suspended human reviews of voice clips from Siri and Google Assistant. Apple said it is suspending Siri grading globally while it conducts a review if queries are being heard correctly or activated by mistake. Apple will also issue a software update to allow users to choose if they want to have Siri recordings used in future grading. Google confirmed it suspended the practice across the EU since July 10th and will continue to do so for at least the next three months.
- Germany's data protection commissioner announced it is investigating Google's practice of hiring contractors to review audio snippets from Google Assistant to improve speech recognition. Contractors have reported hearing conversations accidentally recorded when the assistant was triggered by mistake. Google says it reviews around 0.2% of clips and does not associate them with accounts.
- Google detailed its plans to provide search provider choice on Android to comply with an antitrust ruling in the EU. A new search provider choice screen will debut on Android devices shipping to the EU in 2020. This will show Google along with three other options available in a given country. Getting on the search ballot will require providers to participate in a sealed-bid auction, stating the price the provider is willing to pay each time a user selects their service. The three winners and Google will be listed randomly on the selection screen.
- The US FCC voted to approve Digital Opportunity Data Collection rules that would require ISPs to provide accurate maps of broadband coverage. Under previous Form 477 rules, ISPs used census-block to show coverage and could count an area served with just a single house connected. Under the new rules, ISPs can count an area served if it can either provide broadband to the home, or provide a connection within 10 business days of a customer request without construction or infrastructure fees outside of a standard service activation. The rules also call for the creation of a crowdsourcing system to collect public input on the accuracy of ISP coverage maps. No deadline has been set for ISPs to provide updated maps, and Form 477 data collection maps will still be submitted by the ISPs.
- US Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill of the Voter Privacy Act which would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to give voters control over their personal data in US elections. The bill would give voters the right to be notified when a campaign obtains their data, and then bar any further sale of it. Voters would also have the right to review and request deletion of data obtained by political organizations. Finally, the bill would allow voters to request online platforms not to use data profiles for political ad targeting. Violations could be punished by fines and up to three years in prison.
- Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that the US Federal Trade Commission is investigating Facebook's acquisitions. The FTC wants to determine if Facebook bought rivals mainly in order to prevent them from becoming a threat to Facebook's business, which could fall afoul of regulations.
- Tyler Blevins, aka Ninja, one of Twitch's most popular streamers announced he will move to stream exclusively on Microsoft's Mixer. He said his streams will be exactly the same, so more Fortnite. Ninja will appear at Lollapalooza in Chicago this weekend... which is being streamed live on YouTube.
- In its Q2 earnings report, Pinterest lost $26 million on revenue of $261 million. Analysts had expected a loss of $39 million on revenue of $236 million. Revenue grew 62% on the year. Overall monthly active users grew 30% to 300 million, led by 38% international growth to 215 million users. Average revenue per international user grew 123% to $0.11, while US ARPU grew 41% to $2.80. On the earnings call, CEO Ben Silbermann said the company will launch new advertising tools for small businesses in the quarter, with a focus on mobile, to help grow ad revenue.
- DoorDash agreed to purchase the food-delivery service Caviar from Square for $410 million. Caviar focused on higher-end restaurants, and its not clear if the listings will be rolled into DoorDash's listings, or remain under the Caviar service. Square originally bought Caviar for $90 million in 2014.
- Google announced a new emergency services feature will roll out to Android in the coming months, allowing users to quickly send location and situational information without spoken interactions. After making a call to 911, a user can select options for Fire, Medical, and Police. From there a Google voice assistant will interact with the 911 responder, including providing name, and location, as well as transmitting GPS coordinates. Users can still interact with the 911 operator during the call. The feature is rolling out first to Pixel devices.
- Nintendo and Tencent announced more details in how the Switch console will be rolled out in China. Tencent will host servers and cloud services for the Switch's online platform, and handle localizing games to Simplified Chinese. The Nintendo eShop will have Tencent's WeChat payment system integrated. Nintendo also confirmed that Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be coming to the Chinese market.
Links
| Preceded by: "Intel Reveals 10nm Ice Lake Laptop CPUs" |
Apple and Google Suspend Human Voice Grading for Virtual Assistants |
Followed by: "Week in Review for the Week of 7/29/19" |