How does Siri hear me say “Hey Siri” if it’s not constantly listening to my conversation or me speaking?
In: Technology
There is a term for this and it’s called a “**Wake Word**” This is Hey Siri, Hey Alexa, OK Google, etc. etc.
The wake word is *local*. Meaning, the physical device can listen for this word *regardless of online status*. Once it hears the wake word, *then* the process of using the cloud language models begins to listen for what you’re asking.
I think where there is a lot of confusion or concern (and rightfully so) is that it’s possible that the wake-word can be miss heard, so Siri may respond to something you said because IT THOUGHT you said Siri or Alexa, and then responded. This sometimes misleads people to think that everything they say is being transmitted to the cloud.
For the devices to be listening all the time and transmitting that data to servers would use up massive amounts of bandwidth and battery life, which is why the wake word is local.
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