'Thank you for my mom’s voice,' the email read. It took him a moment to realize what his Alexa job had preserved
The AI assistant stored voice recordings from prompts and the man was able to retrieve them as a priceless treasure.
Alexa has been a game changer for music, audio, information, and a load of other uses. What one wouldn’t expect is to trace memories and find something they never knew they needed through technology. A user, @17ani29 on Instagram Threads, revealed how Michael Haephrati, a coder who was trying to access his own audio voice recordings from Alexa's database, managed to accidentally help a grieving stranger, David, with something priceless. The person sent an email to the coder, sharing immense thanks and highlighting how significant his code became to bring him solace and comfort.
The email mentioned that the Python script Haephrati had uploaded to the Code Project in order to access the Amazon Alexa recordings became a saving grace for the man grieving his late mother. David mentioned how the coder had put up his work so people could get hold of their audio recordings. “My mum died last week, and she used Amazon Echo a lot," he revealed. He was able to use the code and download the recordings of her speaking and even archive them so he could listen whenever he needed. He was able to get the voice of his mum back, and to him, that meant everything.
“It made quite a big difference to me knowing that if memories ever fade, if I wanted to listen to her voice, I’ll be able to and won’t have to worry about the account closing,” David added. The codes can be used in endearing cases, but also pose a threat to security and privacy, according to a German Magazine. Venture Beat reported about an Amazon customer in Germany who requested his personal data from Amazon. To his surprise, he received a link that gave him access to around 1700 audio clips. However, none of them belonged to him. He was not even a user of the AI tool and had asked for other data, per NPR.
"I was very surprised about that because I don't use Amazon Alexa, let alone have an Alexa-enabled device. So I randomly listened to some of these audio files and could not recognize any of the voices,” he remarked. When he listened to the recordings, they seemed to be different prompts about weather, news, and things of the like. But none of the voices were even remotely close to anything familiar for the customer. The man was increasingly concerned about the mistake since much of the audio had private information about the stranger. He contacted Amazon but didn’t immediately receive a reply.
Since there was much information leaked from the audios, the man was able to identify who the recordings belonged to. It was reported that this incident surfaced among others for privacy concerns when it came to the AI tool. However, Amazon launched a delete command for users to get rid of queries and prompts so no data is stored by Alexa. The news surfaced in 2018 as an earnest effort from the company to protect the privacy of users. In another report, it was revealed that Amazon had cleared the issue with the customer. When the man tried to look at the link and listen to the audio again, he was unable to do so. However, he had already downloaded the files, per Forbes.
An Amazon spokesperson noted that this was a one-time human error that was being seriously looked into. “We resolved the issue with the two customers involved and took measures to further optimize our processes. As a precautionary measure, we contacted the relevant authorities", the Amazon spokesman added. Due to this reason, the post received mixed reactions. @wickedrandom said, “Not sure I want my kids remembering me by increasingly frustrated asking questions from a machine and not getting what I want.” @alvarofsj added, “Damn, I don't know if I'm happy or sad, my heart is confused.” @fuhrmanmarybeth remarked, “I would love to hear my father's voice one more time. He died when I was four.”
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