VOA慢速英语2019 谁在偷听你跟谷歌智能助手的对话录音?

Who Listens to Google Assistant Recordings?

American technology company Google says its contractors listens to recordings of what people say to artificial intelligence system Google Assistant.

The company admitted that people can review those recordings after some of its Dutch language audio clips were leaked to the public.

Google product manager David Monsees wrote about the leak in a recent blog post. He said the company is investigating their release.

Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS got hold of more than 1,000 Google Assistant recordings. It noted in a story that some recordings contained sensitive personal conversations, as well as information that identified the person speaking.

Google said the recordings do not identify user account information. It added that contractors who listen to the audio are told not to take notes of background conversations.

Google said its contract work force listens to recordings to better understand speech patterns and differences in regional accents. Google’s user terms say the company may use the recordings. They state that Google Assistant “records your voice and audio on Google services to improve speech recognition.”

Monsees wrote that Google works with contractors around the world to study the recordings.

Google’s terms do not exactly say that people examine the recordings. But the user terms do say the company could study them as it improves services or creates new features.

Earlier this year, the Bloomberg financial service reported that Amazon’s Alexa also uses contractors to listen to recordings. Amazon officials confirmed the report.

Google’s recording feature can be disabled, but doing so means Assistant loses some of its technical abilities. Users who turn off the recording feature lose the ability for the Assistant to recognize individual voices and learn their speech patterns.

Google Assistant is available on more than 1 billion devices, including smartphones and smart speakers. It has become more popular in the smart speaker market, but still has fewer users than Amazon.

美国科技公司谷歌表示，其承包商会审听用户对人工智能系统谷歌助手所说的对话录音。

谷歌方面承认，在其部分荷兰语音频剪辑被泄露给公众后，人们可以查看这些录音文件。

谷歌产品经理大卫·蒙西（David Monsees）在最近的一篇博客文章中提到了这次泄露事件。他说，公司正在对泄露一事展开调查。

比利时广播公司VRT NWS获得了超过1000份谷歌助手录音文件。它在一篇报道中指出，一些录音包含敏感的个人对话，以及识别说话者的信息。

谷歌雇人监听语音助手录音？.jpg

谷歌方面表示，这些录音没有识别用户帐户信息。该公司还指出，那些审听录音的承包商被告知不许记录背景对话。

谷歌说，他们的雇佣职工通过听录音来更好地理解语言模式和地区口音的差异。谷歌的用户条款指出，该公司可能会使用这些录音。他们说，谷歌助手“会在谷歌服务中记录您的语音和音频，以提高语音识别能力。”

蒙西写道，谷歌与世界各地的承包商合作研究这些录音文件。

谷歌公司的条款并没有确切指明有人会审听录音。但用户的条款确实表明，谷歌公司可以在改进服务或创建新功能时研究这些录音。

今年年初，彭博金融服务报道称，亚马逊的Alexa也通过承包商来审听录音。亚马逊官方证实了这一报道。

谷歌的录音功能可以被禁用，但这样做意味着谷歌助手失去了一些技术功能。关闭录音功能的用户，其谷歌助手将无法识别个人声音和学习其语音模式。

谷歌助手可以在超过10亿部设备上使用，包括智能手机和智能音箱。它在智能音箱市场上越来越受欢迎，但用户仍然少于亚马逊。

Words in This Story

contractor – n. a person who is asked to perform work or to provide goods at a set price or by a certain date

artificial intelligence – n. an area of computer science dealing with the creation of intelligent behavior in computers

blog – n. a website that has personal comments of one person

transcribe – v. to make a written copy of (something)

conversation – n. a talk involving two or more people

background – adj. relating to events taking place behind or next to the main object

pattern – n. the repeated way in which something happens or is done

accent – n. a way of speaking of a group of people

feature – n. a quality; the form or appearance of someone or something