{"id":326031,"date":"2019-11-03T07:44:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T05:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=326031"},"modified":"2019-11-03T07:46:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T05:46:08","slug":"alexas-crowdsource-platform-allows-flawed-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/326031-alexas-crowdsource-platform-allows-flawed-answers.html","title":{"rendered":"Alexa’s crowdsource platform allows flawed answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon’s recently-launched Alexa Answers is already creating problems, according to VentureBeat<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The crowdsource-based feature lets the public add questions and answers for queries that Alexa does not have any available information on.<\/p>\n

VentureBeat analysed public data submitted to Alexa Answers which revealed that false and misleading questions and answers are being accepted and delivered to users of Alexa-enabled devices.<\/p>\n

The platform uses a points-based system to help identify what are supposed to be the most credible answers.<\/p>\n

Once a question and answer go “live”, a feedback rating from users who ask the same question and receive crowdsourced answers increases or decreases the submission’s score.<\/p>\n

Answers with higher-rated scores are more likely to be served.<\/p>\n

Contradicting answers<\/h3>\n

VentureBeat details multiple examples of how Amazon’s text-to-speech system can provide contradicting answers.<\/p>\n

For example, the question “Why are cows bad for the environment?” offers users an answer that explains how cows expel large amounts of methane.<\/p>\n

Alexa also provides a second answer, however, that claims that the methane theory is made up by “climate change radicals”.<\/p>\n

Certain questions even provided what appeared to be sponsored answers, including the recommendation of a tool to help quickly solve a Rubik’s cube.<\/p>\n

Alexa does note when an answer was provided by a customer, however.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now read: Tell your guests you have a smart speaker \u2013 Google hardware chief<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon’s recently-launched Alexa Answers is already creating problems, according to VentureBeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":286706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[7431,723],"class_list":["post-326031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-alexa","tag-amazon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326063,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326031\/revisions\/326063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}