San Francisco, Sep 23 (AP/UNB) — Google is restarting a practice in which human contractors listen to and transcribe some voice commands people give to the company’s artificial intelligence system, Assistant. But this time Google is taking steps to make sure people know what they are agreeing to.
The company suspended its transcription practices after more than 1,000 recordings were leaked to the media in Belgium this summer. Critics have said users didn’t fully understand what they were agreeing to because Google’s language was unclear.
Amazon, Apple and Facebook have used similar practices. The companies say it helps make their AI systems more accurate.
Now Google will require users to agree again to voice transcription and make it clear human transcribers might listen to recordings. The company will also delete most recordings after a few months.