Topic: Voice Recognition

A personal anecdote describes an encounter with a sophisticated AI robocaller soliciting donations for a police association. The host explains how he identified the caller as a robot after it failed to respond naturally to interruptions and repeated the same "creative" opening script.

A custom-built AI assistant running on a Raspberry Pi utilizes the open-source Mimic system for voice synthesis and local speech translation. The project aims to create a functional alternative to commercial assistants like Siri or Alexa, though current performance remains slower due to on-board processing limitations.

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak open the show by discovering a new Skype feature that provides real-time voice-to-text transcription on their screens. They joke about the NSA accidentally looping back their surveillance feed. Dvorak's Skype avatar is noted to be a photo of Hillary Clinton.

A discussion regarding the history of voice recognition technology highlights the collapse of Learnout & Hauspie. The company was revealed to be a Ponzi scheme that had acquired most available voice recognition systems. Microsoft eventually acquired these technologies during the bankruptcy proceedings and integrated them into products like Windows 10.

A donation from Gordon Walton regarding his "Crowfall" Kickstarter leads to a discussion on the security vulnerabilities of voice-activated assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google. The hosts demonstrate how broadcast audio can trigger devices to delete files or order products. They recall historical jokes about voice recognition and provide "job karma" to listeners seeking employment.

A review of the Amazon Echo, referred to as the "Amazon spy device," highlights its superior voice recognition and natural language parsing compared to Apple's Siri and Google's offerings. Concerns are raised regarding the device's constant monitoring and the potential for audio streams to be sent to Amazon's servers 24/7.

A listener shares a tip for bypassing automated phone menus: using profanity. Because many commercial voice systems are programmed to detect "agitated" callers to prevent frustration, swearing at the machine often triggers an immediate transfer to a human representative. The hosts encourage listeners to test this "agitation" algorithm on various corporate support lines.

A Taiwanese food blogger was sentenced to 30 days in jail for writing a negative review of a restaurant. The hosts transition into a discussion about the Google Nexus S phone, testing its voice recognition capabilities for navigating to Hesperian Boulevard in San Leandro.

The hosts lament the lack of progress in computer input technology, noting that the QWERTY keyboard remains the standard despite its inefficiencies. They discuss the difficulty of using European keyboard layouts where punctuation and letters like Z and Q are moved. The segment reflects on the unfulfilled promises of automated typewriters and voice-to-text technology envisioned in 1960s science fiction.