Rise of the Machines: Amazon Echo begins to execute commands heard on the radio

After broadcasting on the National Public Radio of the United States about Amazon Echo, a digital assistant activated by voice commands, listeners began to complain about the sudden activation of their devices. Devices recognized words coming from radios and executed recognized commands.

One student complained that his Amazon Echo set the thermostat to 70 ºF (21 ºC). Another wrote that he could not listen to the story of the assistant until the end, because when his assistant heard his name, he began to play an audio summary of the latest news.

The presenters on the radio had a lot of funand jokingly gave all the devices that hear them, the command to transfer money in favor of the radio station. However, cases of activation of voice assistants due to radio or television broadcasts are quite common.

Now that there are Amazon Echo commercials on TV, they accidentally activate my mom's Echo ALL THE TIME. That's a great story prompt.

- Dan Wells (@TheDanWells) December 4, 2015

Interestingly, even Amazon support representatives, whom people complain about voice activation problems, admit that they also have certain difficulties using assistants - and they are not protected from false activation of their devices.

Apparently Amazon's customer service is also annoyed that their Echos play Christmas music at request of commercial pic.twitter.com/dyGIUmIM7G

- Danielle Alberti (@DanielleAlberti) December 4, 2015

But, apparently , digital assistants with voice activation are slowly, but surely, conquering American households.