So, apparently Burger King Hijacked Google Assistant

[DIMAnirban]

Original Article here:

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/google-burger-king-feud-over-control-of-the-google-assistant/

 

So, Burger king used the "OK, Google" feature and kind of hijacked the feature to their own advantage.

There was a TV ad which was fifteen seconds long and it exploited the fact that anybody could trigger the "Ok Google" feature on an android phone.

Here's the ad which was used.

It's sure to say that Google was not pleased with this, and has issued a server side update to remove the Burger King recording which the assistant would read out (Which would include the ingredients from the Wikipedia page, which of course people tried to vandalise, and some were even successful to an extent)

 

According to the article, now, the ad would still trigger the Google Home but the assistant would not trigger a voice response, instead it would just go back to sleep.

However, if an user asked specifically what a whopper burger is, it would still give a voice response. 

 

Idk, what do you guys think about this whole thing?

[mrzoltowski]

Guerilla marketing, love it.

It's a bit of harmless fun and it shows the silliness of google always listening for that phrase, If it forces google to rethink the whole activation thing quicker, that's a good thing also

.

[tlink]

i mean its a pretty funny idea but i completely agree with google blocking it. burger king shows us why voice activation without proper voice recognition is a bad idea.

[joshdavies]

It's a cool idea but Google Assistant is trained to your voice, so it would only work if your voice sounded similar to the man in the advert. For instance, it did not activate Google Assistant on my phone, yet may activate it on other people's phones. It also depends on settings as to whether you even have OK Google enabled from everywhere on the phone. 

[GooDBoY920]

Damn this is funny....Now, I want to buy halal burger from Burger King.

[mcraftax]

3 minutes ago, tlink said:

i mean its a pretty funny idea but i completely agree with google blocking it. burger king shows us why voice activation without proper voice recognition is a bad idea.

I don't know how he did, as I don't have a phone with Google Assistant, it but one of my friends made it so only he could trigger it with his voice so now we can not search things on his phone, also he is one of those people who don't like anything "bad" in their search history so i was fun...

[Atmos]

guys... 100% this is not a ploy to make people realize their phone is always listening, this is just another horseshit marketing tactic BK is using to avoid paying for longer/better adverts and to try and force consumer interaction. 

the upside is that if theres pr fallout over them hijacking phones they can fall back on the whole "we're just trying to make you aware of your own security!" gimmick. Its pathetic, honestly. It doesnt take a genius to see it. 

 

 

[Notional]

Haha brilliant. Annoying AF, but quite clever.

[raphidy]

It would be funny to have that ad shown in the cinemas.

[LAwLz]

So that's why the Whopper article on Wikipedia kept being vandalized to sound like an ad.

 

[DrMikeNZ]

13 minutes ago, raphidy said:

It would be funny to have that ad shown in the cinemas.

"Ok, Google, set reminder, turn off phone in cinema"

[Teddy07]

43 minutes ago, mrzoltowski said:

Guerilla marketing, love it.

 

I hate marketing so much, especially this sort. It is like cancer

[AlTech]

Jokes on you cos I use Cortana and my phone doesn't have hands free voice activation features.

[mynameisjuan]

This doesnt just affect google home, this can be done with Alexa or even Cortana. 

 

Not sure why this is all of a sudden an big issue with home, when right now there is a pizza hut commercial where he says "alexa, order me a pizza", which for whoever has that setup on their Alexa will have a pizza ordered and delivered. Like actually spending money. But that never caught the news somehow. 

 

Honestly companies should be fined for this. 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

IIRC the relevant Wikipedia page has been locked after trolls repeatedly changed the first few lines (which Google Assistant reads aloud) to inform people that it consisted of toenail clippings, cyanide etc.

 

EDIT :

 

timestamped to 48:06, it really gets good at 50:20

[Taf the Ghost]

That's sort of brilliant.

[SansVarnic]

Funny and brilliant.

[PlayStation 2]

when they're always listening so a corporation decides to exploit it

[Jito463]

Good thing I despise voice activation carp, and always have it turned off.

[Guest]

Whoever thought of this needs a pay rise

[vorticalbox]

6 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Jokes on you cos I use Cortana and my phone doesn't have hands free voice activation features.

I always say "hey Cortana" when on Xbox to set it off on my friends console. Annoys the hell out of him. 

 

I do not like that the device is always listening for that feature to work. 

[mynameisjuan]

11 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

I always say "hey Cortana" when on Xbox to set it off on my friends console. Annoys the hell out of him. 

 

I do not like that the device is always listening for that feature to work. 

How do expect it to work if its not always listening? And please do not say to manually turn it on because that defeats the whole purpose of voice assistants. 

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, mynameisjuan said:

How do expect it to work if its not always listening? And please do not say to manually turn it on because that defeats the whole purpose of voice assistants. 

oh I understand it is needed I just don't trust it. Having s device always listening you everything you ever say and then having to take a companies word that they won't save and send it to some random server? No thanks. 

[AlTech]

4 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

How do expect it to work if its not always listening? And please do not say to manually turn it on because that defeats the whole purpose of voice assistants. 

Hands free voice activation requires checking a special phrase.

 

Manual activation is fine as well cos I know when it's listening to me and when it's not.