Digital Voice Assistants: Siri and Alexa

What is a digital voice assistant? What kind of tasks can they do? How can you get over feeling stupid about talking to a machine, or your watch? Why are the voices always female? Nerd Girl Jess untangles how to get started using Siri and Alexa, going over the risks, why you might be hesitant to use a device in your home that's always listening, and ends with some possible ways to get Siri and Google Assistant into your older car that doesn't already have a bluetooth connection.

Transcript

Digital Voice Assistants (Siri, Alexa)

Jess: Welcome to Nerd Girl Jess Untangles Tech. My name is Jess Stratton, AKA nerd girl, Jess, on the socials. 

 This is the very first episode. And I'm so excited to bring this to you. 

This podcast is for you. It's that simple. No matter what level you are, no matter if you're a consumer or here for your organization. There's something you can take back and learn or remember, or be inspired about trying or excited to use. 

According to the Oxford language dictionary, "solace" is defined as comfort or consolation in times of distress or sadness. My business was called solace. And that name was so important to me. Just as important as fixing a computer error is reassuring the people on the other side of the screen that it's going to be okay. 

The second part was educating the customer and empowering them with the skills they need to make sure it doesn't happen again. Or if it does what they themselves can do. And that is what brings us here together today. 

Chef Gusteau: It's not for the faint of heart, you must be imaginative, strong hearted. You must try things that may not work and you must not let anyone define. To find your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul. What I say is true. Anyone can cook. But don't need the fearless. Can be great. Sure.

Jess: You may have recognized Chef Gusteau's speech that inspires Remy the rat in the Pixar movie, Ratatouille. He famously says anyone can cook. Which is about letting go of limits based on who you are. I'm telling you that anyone can tech. You can learn, you can find ways to accomplish what you want to. We're all in this together. 

 There's generally three reasons why people don't try a fix or a new piece of technology. The first is price. And that's a well-defined boundary. So while I will talk about budgetary limitations, 

I'm more focusing on the remaining two reasons. Fear. Of clicking on or tapping the wrong thing or breaking something. And finally the feeling of being overwhelmed as to where to start. Either where to start learning about it or where to start building it or doing it. 

 I'm here to tell you that through this podcast, we'll be taking a journey together. We'll start from the beginning of each topic and break it down. So you don't feel so overwhelmed. We'll go over the risks and weigh the benefits versus the risks. So you can make your own decisions as to whether a particular piece of technology is for you. 

And along the way. I'll also tell you any pitfalls that I've discovered as I have certainly broken my fair share of software and devices in the name of exploration. 

 We'll be talking about smart lighting, using ride sharing apps, GPS, mobile payments, accessibility, taking better photos with your smartphone, Google calendar. Supporting parents from a distance, solving your home wifi issues. When it's time to upgrade a phone or computer, how to trust reviews on websites. 

Being a critical online news reader. Avoiding phishing scams. How to be more productive with email, how to do video conferencing. If you have a tech question, you'd like me to answer on the podcast. You can submit it. by sending your question to podcast@nerdgirljess.com Chef Gusteau says that a famous chef can come from anywhere. I'm here to tell you that you don't need to be famous. But you can use technology that will make you happier. Joyful and be more productive with. Anyone can tech. And now. Onto the show.

Jess: Picture this scene. You've just gotten into your car, heading to an errand or friend's house, a job. Where you're going. Doesn't matter. It only takes a few minutes of settled relaxation before your brain is abuzz with all the things you have to do. 

Send a text to 10. Can you please print the report from yesterday? Question mark. Thank you. Send it. Yes. Done. 

Remind me when I get home to move my laundry over to the dryer. Okay. I added it. 

When is my coffee date with Diane. Coffee date with Diane is scheduled for 7:30 AM tomorrow. 

Send a text to my daughter asking if she needs a ride to school tomorrow. Send it. 

Remind me at 2:00 PM to check the status of my printed reports. Okay. I added it. 

By the time you get home. It's dark and the outside lights are turned off. So you can't see your front door and walkway. Staying in your car, you ask your card to do you a solid. Turn the outside lights on. Okay.

The phone has also helpfully done exactly what I asked a bit earlier. And because I'm just arriving home has just reminded me I have a pile of laundry to do that. Solid has just gotten canceled out. This episode, I'm talking about digital voice assistants. If you use an apple device, you have Siri. Windows users used to have Cortana. There's Google assistant and Amazon devices have Alexa. I use both Siri and Alexa on a daily basis. Amazon. Alexa devices alone are worth a separate episode. I most likely will be covering that alone at one point. 

So, what are they. They are digital voice assistance, built into hardware devices like phones and speakers and some cars. They rely on a constant internet connection. You activate them. Either by using a wake word or pressing a button. 

Tell them what you want them to do. And they can perform those tasks on your devices that you could also do manually. If you wanted to. 

What kind of tasks can a digital assistant do? 

It can answer factual questions. It can perform arithmetic operations. It can read emails and interact with your calendar and reminder lists. It can put items in your online shopping cart. It can set timers. It can control your home automation. This means that if you know the names of your devices, 

You can control them simply by asking the assistant to interact with them. This could be turning lights on or off. A coffee maker or noise machine on or playing your favorite XM radio channel or Spotify playlist. It is a little overwhelming and it will take time. For you to really understand everything it's capable of. 

So I did want to add that something that's just as important is remembering that it's not a competition. If you only use your assistant to add the occasional reminder or. Do the occasional math operation, maybe help with your child's homework or. 

Answer a quick factual question. That's a win. The easiest way to find out if your assistant can do something is to ask it to do that thing. It will tell you if it can't. 

 So how does one get used to talking to a device out loud? The easiest way again is just to dive in and do it. And yes, it is awkward at first. However, I believe that once you see how helpful it is, you'll get over it quickly. It's also helpful to get used to chatting normally. We tend to think we need to speak clearly in an almost robotic monotone voice. And that's part of the initial silliness. 

But these assistants are trainable. They will actually get used to your voice. So it's best to just talk normally to it. They can also respond to the same task that's asked of it in multiple ways. So this might make it easier for you to get used to just speaking as you normally would. For example. If I wanted to order more dog food, I could say. 

Alexa. Order more dog food. Whereas my neighbor might ask them their Alexa. Alexa. Place an order for more items popup. Both devices will know our Amazon order history. And can find the right size bag and food. 

But one may be a more comfortable and natural way of asking for me than it is for my neighbor. 

Now. Using Siri is a habit for me. If I'm chatting with a friend and we're trying to plan an event, I can ask what day a particular date will fall on. If I'm packing for a trip. I'll always ask what the weather will be in the place I'm going to. If I'm baking, I might ask how many ounces are in three cups. 

You know, you can use it around your house. It can turn on lights and can order things. If you have an Alexa device in shouting distance where you might need it.

 Speaking of that dog food example. Mine is very good at interpreting me when I'm on my knees in the cabinet, trying to scrape out the last of the dog food. And I'll ask Alexa to reorder dog food because I'm right there and I can see that it's empty. I find it particularly useful on my apple watch and in the car. The examples I gave at the beginning of the episode are all real life. Examples of how I use it every day. 

A lot of us tend to use the shower and the car is the two places to muse our day-to-day tasks, organize thoughts and come up with to-do lists. But digital voice assistance. Let me go hands free to send text messages and reminders, check upcoming calendar events and more. While I think of them on the road.

Tracy, two kids. Tracy, the kids. Come in kids. Come in and GEDs. Hits here at last, the new Dick Tracy two-way wrist radio that keeps you in constant touch with your buddies. Easy to work. Antenna. Switch on. Press talk about 

Jess: It can be just as awkward to start talking to your wristwatch. And like any other device it takes use to desensitize yourself. However, it wasn't long before I found the benefits far outweighed any initial embarrassment that I had. I'm busy. This thing helped me get things done. 

 Over time. We've gained the ability to change the voice of our digital assistants like Siri and Alexa. 

 A lot of computer. Is commander Riker still on the bridge. Negative Ryker is currently in holodeck three. 

Jess: Historically. The majority of artificial intelligence powered digital assistants have had a female voice. In fact, Google's assistant went a bit farther. Giving their female gendered AI voice, a complete backstory. 

And if you were wondering. The companies that design the assistance have absolutely faced backlash over what seems to be. A very specific bias. I'll put a delicately. According to the company, Adapt Analytics, there could be a few possible reasons. The first being that we prefer the female voice and respond to it well and find it calming. 

It's important to remember. That at the end of the day, these are for profit businesses and it sells. I've heard they put a penny or two into their marketing department. Adapt also cited a more matter of fact, possible reason that there just simply happens to be a lot more data about the human response to the female voice. 

We're talking, going as far back as telephone operators in the 1880s. And into the 1950s and sixties. Whose voices were so positively received that they became the industry standard that all other companies strive to achieve. 

Jess: Text to speech technology has been developed for a very long time. And these modules. Have been exclusively trained on women's voices. So it may have come down to the fact that it's simply a cost effective means of developing as there's so much, perfectly useful data already. 

In 2016, Google assistant was launched note. The gender neutral name. Google tried very hard to launch with both the female and male voice to choose from. However, see the previous point. As these systems were trained using female voice data, the results were just not as accurate on the male voice. 

The study from adapt analytics was from 2021. And I'm happy to say you do have choices to talk to your digital assistant. You can choose from a few accents and choose a male or female voice. My Siri currently has the voice of an Australian male. We have some nice chats together. I am also pleased to say that newer Amazon devices. 

Also have the ability to change the voice to Ziggy. Uh, male AI voice. This includes a new wake word, also Ziggy, instead of Alexa. Maybe you're a David Bowie fan. He was also the name of the supercomputer on quantum leap, which has since been remade. Or we can not forget the old comic strip. 

If you want to see if you can make this change. Because like I said, it's only on newer Alexa devices. Um, in fact, a lot of my devices are simply too old and I can't have this voice.

To check. On the Alexa app. Go to devices. Tab on echo and Alexa. Choose the Alexa device you want to change? And on the top right hand side, there'll be a gear icon to get into settings. From there. You'll see, wake word. And would, you can change it to Ziggy and you'll also see the ability to change the voice to new Alexa. 

If you, aren't curious about the voices behind the technology, there've been a lot of articles about them. Siri is voiced by Ken Jacobson. John Briggs and Susan Bennett. While Amazon is hush hush, about who voices, Alexa. It is rumored to be actress Nina roll though. That's just a Google search. Like I said, Amazon, neither. 

Denies or confirms. 

Alexa, however, does have the additional feature of being able to use skills, to expand the power of what it can do. And we'll talk about that in a bit. One of those skills. Is the ability to change the voice. Alexa has a few celebrity personalities that bring a bit of color to the assistant. Like Samuel Jackson, Melissa McCarthy, you can even have Santa Claus. 

With voice artificial, intelligent, launching at a record pace. I would not be surprised at many more voice options open up to us in the not so distant future. 

 So, how do you get started with a digital assistant? If you have an iPhone, you can use Siri. And you can go to settings. And then tab Siri and search to see all of your options. On a Google device. There is a Google assistant app. And if you like this, you can also get the Google assistant app for your iPhone too. If you prefer it over Siri, or like to use both, would you absolutely can do. 

Most of them are either voice activated or activated by holding down the home button on your device. If you want to try or haven't used your Alexa device yet, you'll need a free Amazon account. After buying the initial device and you can do that on Amazon's website. And there are a lot of devices now. 

It will actually walk you through some exercises to try talking to it. Alexa is free to use. There's no subscription fee. 

For example, I can tell my Alexa set an alarm for every weekday at 6:00 AM. If there's a holiday. I can say, Alexa. Canceled the alarm. And it will ask me if I want to cancel just that one next alarm. Though, if you've currently set up the region that you're in on your device, it will know those holidays. And it will ask you ahead of time, if you want to cancel just that day's alarm. 

I especially like the ability to say Alexa snooze. 

We talked about how you can change the wake word for these devices. 

That is. The word that it's listening for to be ready to accept, to command. This way. If you or someone in your house is named Alexa, it won't constantly wake up. Those options are in the settings for each device. 

The concept of a wake word is something that may be keeping you from giving a digital voice, assistant a try. And sure that is absolutely a valid concern. 

Jim. And Linda were talking about a child who accidentally bought a dollhouse and four pounds of cookies. I love the little girl's take on it. Alexa, order me a dollhouse. As soon as Jim said that viewers all over San Diego started complaining there. 

Jess: In 2017, a young girl in Texas made headlines. When she asked Alexa to order a dollhouse. And Alexa complied. And she also got four pounds of sugar cookies too. Local newscasters picked up the story. And one of them ended by saying again, Alexa order me a dollhouse. Now, while the initial story about the little girl certainly happened. 

It was also reported that households that were watching the news story had their devices triggered to also place the order. 

There wasn't any verified claims of this and even an Amazon rep confirmed. That you do have to confirm any orders that you play. So it's not as easy to accidentally order things as you might be led to believe. Though, if you did hear that newscaster say that your Alexa device would certainly respond. 

But you do need to confirm. Before the order is actually placed. 

Also in 2017 was the landmark case and which Arkansas law enforcement and prosecutors requested data from an Amazon Alexa device as evidence and a first degree murder investigation. When the device hears the wake word. It's listening for a command and begins recording. The argument was that Alexa is recording the household audio at this time for a few brief moments. 

And there may be valuable evidence in those background, audio clips. 

The prosecutors have since dropped the case. But you can listen to all those clips that Alexa records in your house. It's in the app. Apple, Amazon and Google all maintain that the devices do not record anything. Until it hears the wake word. 

There is one concern. Uh, unintended or unauthorized recording, which could contain sensitive information. And another concern is data sharing. That is the sharing of those voice recordings with third-party companies. And they could use that for advertising or research and development. 

Some of you also may worry about the always on nature of these devices. That is in order to hear that wake word. Voice assistance must always be listening for it. It also means that like any other internet connected device. It can be vulnerable to being hacked or exploited. And of course. Who doesn't love to hear about a good old fashioned privacy breach where accidental or deliberate breaches. 

Have or could occur. 

It's fun to wake up to a news report about a data breach. 

Okay. We've talked about the potential concerns, which frankly would be irresponsible of me if I didn't talk about them. Ultimately, I want everyone to know how to weigh risks versus rewards and make the best choice for yourself. But I also don't want to scare you off of something that millions of people use enjoy and rely on to be more productive. 

It could really help you out. Apple has taken measures to protect the privacy of its users. Siri will do as much processing as it can on your device before needing to send that data through the internet to apple servers. If you ask Siri something, it may have to take that request. Send it over the internet to apple and then come back with a response. 

For all of us who remember those days had slide when we could pick up the phone and call information. Right. We use that for everything. But sometimes at the last minute, you could actually remember a phone number or two on your own. So if Siri can do something on the device, It's not sharing everything only what it has to. 

Something else you may find interesting is that when Siri does send data to apple for processing, it's not sending it or connecting it in any way to your apple ID. Apple doesn't know who you are. It uses something called a random identifier, and this has done deliberately. So that multiple requests that you may make, can't be linked to you to build a profile about you. 

Also, if you look at the settings on your device, you do have quite a lot of control. So, not only can you disable Siri completely. You can manage and delete Siri history and data that could be stored on your device. 

Now for Amazon Alexa? Yes. It's constantly listening, but it's not listening to do things. It's very specifically listening. Or that wake word. And he processing will only start after that word is heard. Alexa also allows you to create different voice profiles for people in your household. This opens up many possibilities for. 

Doing things like locking down personal data. And also adding extra security for things like unlocking phones and voice activated front door, home locks. Yes. Those are absolutely a thing. 

You can actually go in through the Alexa app and listen to your household's voice history and deleted. And also, if you really wanted to, you can always use Alexa like a push to talk system to. You can press the microphone button and that acts as a mute. It's like a mute button, so it won't listen anymore. 

Now the real test for me and how often I dust. Is when I say Alexa, and it doesn't respond. It usually means I've accidentally pressed the button when I swiffered. It. So you always have the option to just press the button and turn the mic on. When you want to ask Alexa something. 

There's no reason why you can't find a creative way to do something you want. Right. And technology is always about weighing privacy risks over convenience. Right. What level of your privacy are you willing to compromise to get that convenience? For some people. If you aren't willing to have a device listening in your house, there is no right or wrong. 

Maybe you're willing to press a button instead. 

And finally Alexa takes your request over the internet and brings back a response. It doesn't do any processing locally. But that data is encrypted. I feel like you should definitely know that. It's not sending your shopping and product list through the internet over plain text where it could be intercepted it scrambled. 

So I've hopefully given you some great examples and ways that you can use these devices to help yourself out. Save some time. Get your random questions answered. When a few beds and hopefully I've alleviated some concerns or questions you might've had about how digital voice assistants work. My goal is not to make you afraid of them, but rather feel better about using them and getting excited for how they can help you. 

Now, all of this information is available online. So you can always take some time and research your own concerns. And in the name of full transparency and trust between you and I, because I want to build that trust. I did try and save some time. And I used AI to do some research for me. I still verify the results. 

Right. This is an, should be a big part of using AI for research, but it definitely saved me some time. 

And once you feel comfortable with voice assistance. You can extend their functionality even further with skills. And this is mainly for Amazon Alexa devices. Skills, our small apps. They're usually free though. Some have a small cost. Remember when I talked earlier about those additional voices that you could add to Alexa, like celebrity voices or Santa Claus, those are skills. 

You can even ask Alexa what some skills are you can use and it can install them for you. You can have audio books read to you. I play game shows at house parties. You can use it as a white noise machine when you go to bed. 

Developers can make skills so that their software or hardware can interact with Alexa. In fact, if you bought a smart device, like a light strip in your house and you can't get it to work with Alexa to turn it on. You probably first have to install the skill from the brand light strip you bought. You can install those skills right in the Alexa app itself. 

Now there are categories of skills and you can browse those. From kids to education and reference. To shopping to health and fitness and more. It can read the news or your favorite blog sites or tell you the weather. And with skills, you can make your own routines. You can do this with Siri. Also, Siri calls them shortcuts. 

I would just recommend you search the web for various list of top 50 of the most useful Alexa skills. There's a lot of lists. And a lot of the work's been done for you to find the best ones. 

Shortcuts are combinations that you make a natural progression to make life easier for you. For example. I have a Siri shortcut that I run at night. It dims my hue lights and turns my noise machine on. These don't have to be spoken for you. You can press a button or it can rely on a trigger such as when it's sunrise or sunset. 

For example. We use a. Shortcut. For turning our backyard lights on, we have dog and in the winter, it's very dark and I will be talking about smart lighting and a completely separate episode, but just. To show you how useful they can be. When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we do is let the dog out and it's dark. 

So we can turn the lights on at a specific time, maybe five o'clock in the morning. So they're already on waiting for us, but then it's hard to remember to turn them off because. It becomes sunrise and it's already bright out. So I created a skill so that at sunrise, it automatically turns off the outside lights for me. 

And those are things that you can do right in the app. 

We made it everyone to the homestretch. The final segment. I love gear and gadgets. I love trying them out. I love hooking them up. And I will grudgingly admit that I sometimes, sometimes like it when they don't work. As I find it challenging and rewarding to make a do what I want. So I'm going to end with some gear for you in case you want to use Siri or Google assistance, hands-free in your car. 

And so this is for all of you with older cars that may not have built in Bluetooth. 

I had well, I still have a 2006 mini Cooper S that did not have any sort of hands-free. Even though the steering wheel had the button, it just didn't have the hookup. It did however, have an ox port, so I could hook my phone up to it. But pressing the Siri button just doesn't work well when I'm fumbling for the car and. 

And it's locked and I can't see what I'm doing. And. The phone's in a poor location to hear me say, Hey, Siri. And definitely didn't help that my car was loud. 

So the good news is, is, uh, gone are the days of $400. Bluetooth conversions. You have options. I bought a Bluetooth adapter that actually hooked into the back of my existing car stereo. So this did require me to get behind the dash and hook it up. It was specific to my make and model of car, but those are out there and this was I think, $50 and rock solid. I was able to use the Bluetooth button. Like it was always there. 

And I didn't have that limitation anymore of the phone, not being able to hear me. Now, if you have the car cigarette socket, you can put a Bluetooth adapter there. Now, these are under $20 and there's versions that use a cable connection with your car, or it can connect via an FM radio station. So, if you're looking for a Bluetooth device that fits your budget, they're out there. 

I would recommend doing a web or Amazon search for car Bluetooth, adapter, or even better start first with the specific make and model of your car. Plus Bluetooth adapter, just to see what's out there. And all the various prices. 

If this podcast picks up, which obviously I'm hoping it does. I would love to have an Amazon store with links to all these products. I'll be recommending. So you can have one-stop shopping. So please share it out. Spread the word. Nerd Girl Jess Untangles Tech. Sending your tech questions or dilemmas or thoughts. 

Um, any changes that you'd like to see, anything that you'd like me to cover? Send those to podcast@nerdgirljess.com. 

Thank you so much for spending this time with me. I hope you had a nice calm journey. And have a fantastic rest of your week.