1807: Listening

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Listening

Title text: Sure, you could just ask, but this also takes care of the host gift thing.

Explanation

This comic depicts Cueball and Ponytail welcoming Black Hat and Danish to their house. Black Hat immediately talks to Amazon Alexa to order two tons of creamed corn. This would be quite expensive (around $10,000), and the hosts would be charged because it was ordered on their Amazon Echo device. It would also be a serious inconvenience. The purchase would be quite bulky and useless, not even likely to arrive until after the visitor has departed, with an average homeowner having very little use for two tons of creamed corn.^{[citation needed]}

The caption claims that this is an effort to find systems recording conversations, such as Alexa or Google Home, for the security of the guests, so they aren't being monitored by an always-on listening device without their consent (at least not without any consequences). However, because Black Hat is the one coming up with this, it's more likely his motives are on the sadistic side, and it's more likely a warning for the hosts to turn off any voice-activated systems before having guests come over so that the guests don't take advantage of them. (It should also be noted that such purchasing services encourage the user to set up a PIN code to fend off such exploits.)

A concerned "visitor" may also want to test for voice-activated systems when near any persons carrying an iPhone or Android mobile device, because these are also always-on listening devices. "Hey Siri" and "Ok Google" voice activation use the same technology as "Alexa" and "Echo" detection.

The title text says that this takes care of the "host gift thing", referring to the custom where house guests give a gift to the hosts. However, Black Hat is making the hosts pay for it, so it can be as expensive as he wants, thus making this yet another example of his being a classhole. For more examples of this, see the trivia below.

Transcript

[Black Hat and Danish enter Cueball and Ponytail's house. They have hardly passed the door mat, with the door still open showing the road and another house outside.]

Ponytail: Hello, welcome to our house!

Black Hat: Thanks for inviting us!

Black Hat: Alexa, order two tons of creamed corn.

Black Hat: Alexa, confirm purchase.

[Caption below the frame:]

When visiting a new house, it's good to check whether they have an always-on device transmitting your conversations somewhere.

Trivia

• In a previous comic, 1559: Driving, Black Hat took also took advantage of a cutting-edge AI—there, a self-driving car—by making it drive across the country without its owner or any passenger. And already back in 596: Latitude he took advantage (of course) of people who constantly kept programs running on their phones that could track their movements.
• Another comic about testing if someone is listening is 525: I Know You're Listening. Just as Black Hat may just speak without knowing for sure that there is an active Alexa, Cueball in the old comic also just speaks out in case there is someone listening. In that case, it was addressed to real surveillance, but as can be seen in the entries below, Alexa may just end up being used like that later.
• Usually Cueball is paired with Megan, but since Black Hat's girlfriend Danish looks like Megan but with longer hair, this makes it sensible to choose Ponytail as Cueball's partner here. They were also partnered in the next comic 1808: Hacking.
• Assuming a standard can of 14.75 oz (418 g) and Black Hat's order was in short tons the order would consist of 4339 cans. Consuming one per day it would last for approx. twelve years. But it's doubtful that the expiration date would be that long.
• In a recent court case authorities believed that an Amazon Echo may have recorded the identity of a murder suspect, leading to a debate about the privacy and safety implications of such devices.
• Another recent event resulted in Alexa ordering several people unwanted doll houses.

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Discussion

I think it's important to note that, at least with Alexa, the device isn't transmitting to the cloud 24/7 - the "wake word" detection happens locally, and then it starts streaming to the Amazon servers. Okofish (talk) 13:18, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

I think I Know You're Listening should be mentioned as a related comic. Effy (talk) 13:33, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

That comic is about surveillance.--Dgbrt (talk) 20:59, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

I agree with Effy as this comic here is also about knowing if anything you say might be overheard. Will add it in. --Kynde (talk) 21:19, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

That's a recent variant of an old joke. https://www.google.fr/search?q=voice+command+format+c+colon Perhaps Randall got triggered by this news: “Alexa, buy me a dollhouse.” --MGitsfullofsheep (talk) 15:31, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

It's worth noting that Amazon Echo was recently criticized because the host of a television show was filmed using his to make an order, which, when watched, was recognized as valid on devices which didn't use a pin. This caused many unanticipated purchases for viewers. I'm not sure wether it was an urban myth, but I heard lots of discussion on the topic a few months ago. 108.162.246.95 17:08, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

A quick google shows it's related to the dollhouse story: https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/08/amazon-echo-attempted-spending-spree/ --108.162.238.11 18:20, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Don't read this comic out loud. 13thehappykid (talk) 20:42, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Ha could be a problem for those who some to use this site to read the transcript with a reader because of problems with their sight... They would not read this warning first ;-) --Kynde (talk) 21:19, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

This device reminds me on Star Trek (TNG):

Captain Piccard: Computer, initiate self destruction.
...

Nowhere else people are talking so often in a human form to a computer. And I'm sure that will be the future -- not only at home or in a car.--Dgbrt (talk) 21:07, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Anyone still waiting for a whatif or comic about Trappist-1?XFez (talk) 13:51, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Would be nice, but I'm no longer specially optimistic about it. --Kynde (talk) 21:19, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

I am impressed that someone took the time to calculate (at least roughly), how much two tons of creamed corn would cost. 162.158.62.75 16:28, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

That is what we do here on explain xkcd ;-) --Kynde (talk) 21:19, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

If two tons of creamed corn costs $10000 (USD?), according to the explanation editor, that works out to $4.61 per 14.75oz can. Where I live, national brands cost less than $1.50 a can.These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 03:15, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

FWIW, the current version of Google Now only responds to "OK, Google" when spoken by the device owner (or someone with closely matching vocal qualities); my wife's phone won't respond to my voice, nor mine to hers, for the initial hotword detection. (Any voice is accepted for the actual query after a successful hotword match, or following a tap on a voice-command icon. Dansiman (talk) 05:47, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

For fun I tested this today with my Echo Dot and someone has fixed this security hole. When told "Alexa, order two tons of creamed corn" the reply was "hmmm... I think I'm going to save you from yourself and skip that particular order." 162.158.79.65 02:28, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Burger King recently took advantage of this. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/google-burger-king-feud-over-control-of-the-google-assistant/ 108.162.210.202 22:16, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

Why exactly did Cueball and Ponytail invite Black hat and Danish to their house? 141.101.98.216 12:02, 27 November 2020 (UTC)