With all of the stories these days about how our new phones can listen in on our conversations at any time, even recording our every word, it might seem that we live inside of some kind of Orwellian technocracy, and are continually being spied upon by an advanced electronic surveillance grid.
Since my own phone is an old iPhone 4, it’s not quite smart enough to employ all of the newest eavesdropping technology, but I have a friend who’s phone is very new, and the other day I got a sample of some of the amazing abilities of these newest ‘personal’ phones.
”Seriously?”
I was sitting with my friend and her son, and they were discussing a family dinner of some sort, and she had decided not to go. Her son was frustrated with her about it, and exclaimed; ”C’mon... seriously? Don’t you think you should at least tell them you’re not coming?”
Before she could answer, a crackling voice came from her nearby phone, and she picked it up.
To all of our amazement, the phone then played back her son’s voice: ”Don’t you think you should at least tell them you’re not coming?”
We were shocked. Her son thought back, and realized that when he’d said ’seriously’ that the smart-ish phone had heard Siri, which had somehow activated the instant playback of the phone’s ongoing recording.
The Conversation
It gets more interesting. Holding the phone close and speaking loudly into it, the encounter with artificial intelligence went to a new level as my friend then commanded:
”STOP LISTENING TO ME!”
Before any of us could think about how an iPhone might react to this, the device absolutely reacted. With a neat, crisp British accent, her phone-- having clearly heard her request-- answered most politely; ”I’m sorry, I can’t do that!”
Welcome to the brave new world, or the brave new AI’s world, featuring a simulated intelligence robot that’s a million and-a-half times smarter than any human, a computer eavesdropping interface that politely tells it’s user to get bent if that user complains about the blatant and rude invasion of privacy.
Hanging Out With Siri Soon
I’ve had my old iPhone 4 since 2010-- back around the beginnings of the AI takeover-- and it has monitored me as well as it could, but the old toy is beginning to glitch and fail, and a new one seems to be about to come into my life.
When I get my new device, maybe I’ll tell Siri that there is liable to be a body buried out in that weedy area next to the garden in back; Siri will alert the cops, the cops will dig it up for me, find nothing, and then I can plant carrots there in the spring.