Tech Brew Ride Home Thu. 04/11 - Alexa Snags Its Own "Scandal"
Apr 11, 2019
Amazon's human workers are listening to your Alexa recordings, raising serious privacy concerns. Jeff Bezos challenges competitors to improve worker wages. The IPO market is heating up, with PagerDuty's shares soaring on debut. Innovative startups are securing impressive funding, including Affectiva's emotional AI for cars and TripleByte's coding assessment platform. Lastly, a grad student’s pivotal role in capturing a historic black hole image showcases the power of teamwork in scientific breakthroughs.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
The Human Element in AI
- Humans still play a significant role in training AI algorithms, like Alexa's speech recognition.
- This often-overlooked process involves transcribing and annotating voice recordings to improve AI's understanding.
Bezos' Wage Challenge
- Jeff Bezos challenged Amazon's retail competitors to match their $15 minimum wage.
- This strategic move could increase labor costs for rivals like Walmart and Target, benefiting Amazon.
YouTube TV Price Hike
- YouTube TV increased its price to $50/month after signing a deal with Discovery.
- This price hike, driven by content acquisition costs, mirrors the traditional cable bundle model.