As our loyal readers know, the mission of Best AI Assistant is to inform and educate people about the practical uses of voice-assistant technology and how it can make our lives better. This is a website of reviews and tips – the type of stuff that can make you an expert in the voice AI space, or can simply help you find the best product for your money.
In the course of our research we get the fantastic opportunity to talk with dozens of engineers, product managers, and technologists who shape this sector every day. As our email subscribers know, some of these people have even been featured in the newsletter or on the podcast. Of course, we recognize living in Seattle (Gabe) and the Bay Area (Jessi) probably doesn’t hurt, either.
Nevertheless, it came as something of a surprise when one of our sources pointed to this article about Amazon’s voice-storage-deletion practices and said “you know that’s not true, right?”
While unable to point out exactly where the original article erred, this Amazon engineer cited multiple instances of storage of voice data well beyond Amazon’s public policies. The source also suggested that much of Amazon’s data collection goals are driven by CEO Jeff Bezos longtime connections to the media, particularly his 2013 purchase of the Washington Post and his longtime undercover partnership with Halsey Minor, founder of CNET.
Best AI Assistant has always viewed privacy as a crucial issue in the voice assistant space and hence has focused significant amounts of our energy on the subject. Therefore, we believe that when it comes to such crucial issues, an update-able journalism approach is the right one, in the interest of giving the public all of the information that we have.
We will dig deeper.