Google’s smart home mastermind talks security, A.I., the future of control

Smart speakers are showing up everywhere, even in hotel rooms. In many cases, using voice commands is more convenient than pulling out your phone, and the Google Home or Amazon Echo can make tasks like turning off lights easier for those with mobility issues. But anything with a microphone comes with privacy concerns. Digital Trends asked Mark Spates, Google’s product lead for smart home, about how speakers and other artificial-intelligence-driven products will fit into the smart home.

DT: You mentioned in your 2018 Connections Conference keynote the heated debate about how much of the smart home should be user driven versus automatic. Where do you come down in the debate?

Mark Spates: We believe both are extremely important, and the decision should be driven by the use case and value delivered to the user. As we progress, I think you’ll see more actions becoming automatic, things like lights responding when you enter the room or the thermostat

What role do you see these devices playing in safety, like if it overhears that someone is in danger?
Smart speakers can do a lot, and I won’t say that down the line they won’t be able to play a role in safety without a specific query, but currently these devices are here to offer assistance when you specifically request it.

What effect will GDPR (the EU’s new privacy law) have on the smart home?

Users can control their data permissions for their Google Assistant. They can choose whether to turn on Web and App Activity (WAA), Device Information (DI), and/or Voice and Audio Activity (VAA) either through myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols, or while setting up the Assistant for the first time, a user can choose ‘No Thanks’ when prompted to grant these permissions during the setup flow. These are Google-wide account settings and are enabled across Google products, including all Assistant surfaces.

nexus 6p permissions
Turning off data permissions removes functionality dependent on that permission (e.g. personalization such as navigate home/work, call Jane, reminders, play my Spotify playlist, Voice Match, etc). Users can control their permissions in all languages and locales where the Google Assistant has launched.
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