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Voice Assistants Are Doing a Poor Job of Conveying Information About Voting (venturebeat.com) 72

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Kyle Wiggers, reporting for VentureBeat: Over 111.8 million people in the U.S. talk to voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant every month, eMarketer estimates. Tens of millions of those people use assistants as data-finding tools, with the Global Web Index reporting that 25% of adults regularly perform voice searches on smartphones. But while voice assistants can answer questions about pop culture and world events like a pro, preliminary evidence suggests they struggle to supply information about elections. In a test of popular assistants' abilities to provide accurate, localized context concerning the upcoming U.S. presidential election, VentureBeat asked Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant a set of standardized questions about procedures, deadlines, and misconceptions about voting. In general, the assistants fared relatively poorly, often answering questions with information about voting in other states or punting questions to the web instead of answering them directly.
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Voice Assistants Are Doing a Poor Job of Conveying Information About Voting More

Voice Assistants Are Doing a Poor Job of Conveying Information About Voting

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  • Not only about voting (Score:4)

    by OneHundredAndTen ( 1523865 ) on Thursday September 17, 2020 @01:13PM (#60516358)
    Voice assistants pretty much still remain what they have been since they were deployed first: gimmicks good for party games, grins and giggles, and very, very little else. For the most part, it is easier to get things done yourself than trying to twist their arm into understanding what it is that you want. They will tell you the height of mount Everest and the weather forecast all right; but once there is a little bit of vagueness and/or ambiguity in your request, they spins their wheels badly.
    • True. However, on top of that their questions also lacked context. For example, "Can I vote if I’m a felon?" has different answers around the world due to different election laws. While it might be "obvious" to the person asking that they are referring to a US presidential election it is probably not obvious to the voice assistant since it does not know the background of the person asking the question...or at least it doesn't want to let you know that it knows all about you because that would creep pe

  • Should read:

    111.8 million people in the U.S. talk to voice assistants ... every month, eMarketer estimates. Tens of millions of those people use assistants as date-finding tools

  • If you're voting by mail vote immediately (Score:5, Informative)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday September 17, 2020 @01:27PM (#60516410)
    and put two stamps on your ballot. You will want at least 10-14 days for your ballot to travel due to post office delays caused by recent changes (sorting machines have been disabled or destroyed and postal worker hours have been cut back recently).

    If in doubt wear a mask and drop it off.

    Do not vote in person unless your state does not allow it. Get a ballot and drop it off so you don't hold a spot in line. Remember that not everyone can wait in line 4-8 hours to vote.

    Finally check if you're registered today. Voter roll purges are frequent and many states will purge you from the rolls if your current address is even slightly off from what they expect. Make sure your address is up to date. Georgia sends small, easily lost post cards to voters every year and if you get one they will purge your unless you respond to it.

    It's safe to say there is an active campaign to suppress voting this year. If you want your voice heard you need to make sure your ducks are in a row.

    • and put two stamps on your ballot. You will want at least 10-14 days for your ballot to travel due to post office delays caused by recent changes (sorting machines have been disabled or destroyed and postal worker hours have been cut back recently).

      If in doubt wear a mask and drop it off.

      Do not vote in person unless your state does not allow it. Get a ballot and drop it off so you don't hold a spot in line. Remember that not everyone can wait in line 4-8 hours to vote.

      Finally check if you're registered today. Voter roll purges are frequent and many states will purge you from the rolls if your current address is even slightly off from what they expect. Make sure your address is up to date. Georgia sends small, easily lost post cards to voters every year and if you get one they will purge your unless you respond to it.

      It's safe to say there is an active campaign to suppress voting this year. If you want your voice heard you need to make sure your ducks are in a row.

      I have lived in multiple towns and cities and have never had more than a five minute wait.

      I voted in person in this past primary, no problem at all. I heard from people that their mail-in ballots were rejected for one reason or another. Show up if it matters to you.

      An active voter is extremely unlikely to get purged.

      "It's safe to say there is an active campaign to suppress voting this year" is the same bullshit we hear every election.

      • or near a University be prepared for a very, very long wait. Google "Poll Wait Times" someday. You'll find reams and reams of evidence of long waits being used to discourage voting.

        You hear this bullshit every year because it's been done since the founding of the country. You used to have to travel to vote and if you weren't an aristocrat that could take days off to do that well, sucks to be you.

        • or near a University be prepared for a very, very long wait. Google "Poll Wait Times" someday. You'll find reams and reams of evidence of long waits being used to discourage voting.

          You hear this bullshit every year because it's been done since the founding of the country. You used to have to travel to vote and if you weren't an aristocrat that could take days off to do that well, sucks to be you.

          I live near a university and a community college. No problems at all.

          If there are problems in the larger inner cities it's more like mismanagement than voter suppression. Here's an article for NYC primary day polling issues, their idiot mayor Bill DiBlasio is running the place into the ground at warp speed.
          https://gothamist.com/news/pri... [gothamist.com]

          • very blue, only California is bluer. That is not a coincidence...

            Try that in a red or purple state. You'll wait and wait and wait. Heck even in my state I waited 3 hours to vote for Bernie in 2016 ( in 2020 I voted by mail).

            • very blue, only California is bluer. That is not a coincidence...
                Try that in a red or purple state. You'll wait and wait and wait. Heck even in my state I waited 3 hours to vote for Bernie in 2016 ( in 2020 I voted by mail).

              You missed the point. NYC is blue, and their polling issues are due to mismanagement.

      • Both are true. There are organizations that are actively trying to reduce voter turnout, make it harder to vote, and fomenting propaganda about voter fraud.

        But...it's also hard to understand why people, in the year 2020 don't have enough of their act together. We've had almost four years to...register to vote and/or register to vote by mail. Almost four years to do your change of address form, or get a government id, or get a copy of your birth certificate to get a government id.

        I recall The Bernie Sand

        • in America elections are won or lost by very, very small margins thanks to our Winner Take All, First Past The Post voting system. This means you really only have to have few people get disenfranchised.

          Also the phrase "don't have enough of their act together" implies you don't think they should be allowed to vote. I'm not sure if you realize that or not. You should be careful about deciding who has the right to vote though. That's how we slip into fascism and oligarchy. And don't expect to be one of the

          • Also the phrase "don't have enough of their act together" implies you don't think they should be allowed to vote. I'm not sure if you realize that or not. You should be careful about deciding who has the right to vote though.

            You're putting words into OP's mouth - no one ever said that people should not be allowed to vote. The meaning of OP is clear - if you're too lazy to do the minimal work required to cast your vote, you won't be making an informed choice anyway because the work required to become informed is a lot more than the work required to vote.

            That's how we slip into fascism and oligarchy.

            Funny how it's always those societies with a large hard left that "slipped into" facism, mass purges, genocides, etc.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by skids ( 119237 )

        This is highly dependent on where you live.

        Personally I live in a low-infection-rate area that has a lot of early in-person voting days. So it's low-risk from a disease perspective, and that's the option that is lowest risk that my ballot will be challenged in any way over the fact that I don't have a very consistent signature. So that's what I'm doing.

        If I lived in a state where there was inadequate (or no) in-person early voting and was a COVID hot-spot, assuming I could, I'd request an absentee ballot

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        In Democrat-majority precincts of Ohio in 2016 people had to wait in line for four hours, while Republican-majority precincts had more machines than they needed. The story was much the same in several other states with Republican Secretaries of State. The voter purges are **VERY** well documented and have been since 1999, the felon purges are the worst. In Florida if you had a name similar to a felon and were registered in a Democrat-majority precinct you were likely to get purged in 2000, 2004, 2008 and

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kqs ( 1038910 )

        I have lived in multiple towns and cities and have never had more than a five minute wait.

        I work the polls in PA and at the busiest time, four years ago, there was a 40 minute wait at my polling location. And my state, for all it's electoral shenanigans, didn't close polling locations in areas with minority voters.

        By your logic: my computer works fine. Therefore, logically, every computer in the world works fine and anyone who complains about a broken computer is "the same bullshit we hear" every day. I can run 5 miles. Logically, everyone can run 5 miles, including tetraplegics and infants

        • I have lived in multiple towns and cities and have never had more than a five minute wait.

          I work the polls in PA and at the busiest time, four years ago, there was a 40 minute wait at my polling location. And my state, for all it's electoral shenanigans, didn't close polling locations in areas with minority voters.

          By your logic: my computer works fine. Therefore, logically, every computer in the world works fine and anyone who complains about a broken computer is "the same bullshit we hear" every day. I can run 5 miles. Logically, everyone can run 5 miles, including tetraplegics and infants. Anecdote != Datum.

          Yes, it's an anecdote, expressing my experience at multiple locations. And you just expressed yours.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by kqs ( 1038910 )

            The difference is that you used your anecdote to say "the same bullshit we hear every election". I used my anecdote to say that your anecdote cannot make any sweeping generalizations. Some places have short or no lines; some places have very long lines. Some places try to suppress voters and votes by removing citizens from voting rolls; some places do not. Saying that something you have not experienced "is the same bullshit" does not really make you look bright.

    • no stamps needed the voteing office will pay / get billed the missing fees.

      • The stamp forces the USPS to handle the mail differently, specifically as first class, instead of as bulk.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • voting by mail is safe and effective and has been done since the Civil War. The only issue with vote by mail is that Trump is actively sabotaging the post office. 10-14 days and an extra stamp will be more than enough to counteract that.

        But the GOP is hoping to jam the polls so that young people, who tend to vote Democrat and have kids at home and day jobs, can't wait hours and hours to vote. They're counting on a poll worker shortage.

    • If in doubt wear a mask and drop it off.

      Do not vote in person unless your state does not allow it.

      If you can wear a mask to drop it off, why can't you wear a mask to actually physically go vote? In person voting is the surest way to make sure your ballot is cast AND maintain election integrity. And its no more dangerous than anything else you do with your mask every single day, like go into a store. Unless you're one of those people who are in a high at-risk group (the very elderly, asthma, etc), then you should be voting at a polling place anyway.

      • because to this day their leader, Donald Trump, is down playing them and his party and their media apparatus is telling people that wearing masks is Marxist communism and/or worse than slavery (both of those are not me exaggerating for effect, you can find the quotes on Google easily enough).

        Remember, masks only protect YOU marginally. They protect OTHERS. And expect long, long waits at the polls. The longer you're exposed to the virus the more likely you are to get it and the more likely it is to be a

      • Dropping off a ballot is oftentimes done outdoors at a dropbox with no one else standing around. Voting in person is generally done indoors with dozens or hundreds of other people around you for an extended period of time. The latter is FAR more dangerous, despite your protestations to the contrary.

        At least for me, however, it's moot. My state doesn't have mail-in ballots, just absentee ballots on the basis of about a half-dozen enumerated reasons (most of which require either being bedridden or being away

        • Drop boxes are either secured or in full view of poll workers. Why would you say something like this? Are you being paid [thedailybeast.com]?

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by kqs ( 1038910 )

            What are you talking about? 18 seconds of Googling shows me https://multco.us/dropsites [multco.us] which has pictures of current dropboxes outdoors, not in a secure area nor with poll workers nearby. You're.... not really a bright one, are you? Understanding words a bit difficult?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mark-t ( 151149 )

      It's my understanding that anyone may vote in person, even if they voted by mail, as long as they tell the poll worker that they have voted by mail. The poll worker may have a list of people who have voted by mail already, but this list will not include people who have voted by mail and their vote has not yet been tallied, perhaps because it is still in the mail. If you tell the poll worker that you voted by mail, this will be noted on the voter's list that the poll worker has as an extra precaution aga

      • has anything to do with mine. I'm giving advice on how to vote by mail so that your vote makes it to where it needs to be counted in time.

        You seem concerned about voting twice. That's not really much of an issue. It's possible, and it would mean invalidated votes, but the only time it happens is when a voter changes their mind on election day.

    • Remember that not everyone can wait in line 4-8 hours to vote.

      If you have to wait that long to vote then something is seriously broken with how you organize elections and encouraging people to mail in their ballots is not going to fix it.

      • about how mail in voting won't fix it. The first step is to kick the people out of office who are engaging in voter suppression. We need as many as can to mail in their ballots because those engaging in voter suppression are counting on the polls being overwhelmed and on their opponents not being able to wait (or not being willing to risk death to stand in line for hours with people who refuse to wear masks).

        Vote By Mail is still perfectly safe and effective if you follow the steps I outlined above. Ev

        • The first step is to kick the people out of office who are engaging in voter suppression.

          Since I am assuming that the 4-8 hour number was based on prior experience this would imply that people were waiting 4-8 hours to vote last time. If so, then despite his appalling actions this election Trump is not the person to blame for all the voter suppression going on since it was happening before he was in power.

          Such wait times would be regarded as appalling here in Canada or in the UK and I dare say most other countries as well. Such a situation would have all parties working to get the wait time

        • about how mail in voting won't fix it. The first step is to kick the people out of office who are engaging in voter suppression. We need as many as can to mail in their ballots because those engaging in voter suppression are counting on the polls being overwhelmed and on their opponents not being able to wait (or not being willing to risk death to stand in line for hours with people who refuse to wear masks).

          Vote By Mail is still perfectly safe and effective if you follow the steps I outlined above. Even with everything the Trump administration has done to sabotage it there are limits. He can't (yet) shut down the postal service. He'll need another term for that. Maybe two or three and a for one of his sons to be crowned king after he dies.

          You probably have never been on the receiving end of a mass mailing like that. I have, for the census. It takes forever to deal with the volume of mail. It is a painstaking and labor-intensive process, and requires many months of planning and a lot of staffing. For a national election it has never been done on this scale, and it is not going to go well.

          • All that matters for an election is delivery. If the ballots are delivered on time they are legally required to be counted. It doesn't matter if it takes 2 or 3 weeks. So you're points are not valid and are likely just you trying to discredit Vote By Mail because you're being paid to do so. Either that or you've drunk so much Kool-Aid it's a wonder you haven't died from sugar overdose.

            • All that matters for an election is delivery. If the ballots are delivered on time they are legally required to be counted. It doesn't matter if it takes 2 or 3 weeks. So you're points are not valid and are likely just you trying to discredit Vote By Mail because you're being paid to do so. Either that or you've drunk so much Kool-Aid it's a wonder you haven't died from sugar overdose.

              You are clueless about what is involved. You have no experience and no idea how big a task this is.

    • For anyone wondering why the 2 stamps (Score:4, Informative)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday September 17, 2020 @02:52PM (#60516752)
      Louis DeJoy, Donald Trump's appointee to the US Postmaster General, has chosen to remove a rule that automatically upgraded mail in ballots to 1st class regardless of weight. This means your ballot may be sent using the slower mail routing and arrive late if you only use 1 stamp. The 2nd stamp gives it enough postage to guarantee 1st class handling.

    • Remember that not everyone can wait in line 4-8 hours to vote.

      Waiting that long to vote doesn't happen very much at all. [theconversation.com]

      The 2016 election seemed better: The average wait to vote nationwide was 19 minutes.
      ...
      In 2018... 6% – reported waiting more than 30 minutes
      ...
      In 2018, Black and Latino voters waited 11 minutes and white voters 9 minutes, on average. But as the percentage of nonwhite voters in a precinct increased, so did wait times – from 5 minutes in districts that were 90% white or more, to 32 minutes in districts that were 90% nonwhite or more.

      There are plenty of anecdotes about hours long wait times, but the data says it's not at all common. Given all the shenanigans you cite with regard to mail in voting, and given the fact that many states are likely unprepared for the volume of mail in ballots they're likely to face, I don't see how discouraging in-person voting helps things at all.

      You mention in another post that the risk from COVID is the reason people shouldn't vote in person.

      • not in an election that's one by a 1% margin. All you need to do is for a few tens of thousands of young voters to drive past a poll, see a long line, say "I can't wait that long, I've got kids at home with homework to do and I gotta be up at 6am" and *blamo* you've just won another rigged election for the GOP.

        • LOL, I just provided you a source with data that shows average wait times at the polls in 2018 were less than 15 minutes. Logic says that lines at the polls will be shorter this year than in 2018 due to COVID. This "long lines with 4-8 hour waits" is just another one of your fictions. Why you're pushing it is anybody's guess.

          If these tens of thousands of young people you speak of can't be bothered to take 15 minutes out of their lives to vote in person, then they are free to cast a mail-in ballot. Eith

    • Negative! Wear a mask and gloves if you want to, but vote in person. Line up around the block if you have to. The polls will stay open as long as there are people in line. Get out and actually vote. The more mail-in ballots there are, the more the republicans will try and discredit the election. However valid that isn't, the reality is that we just don't need more mud in the water. Trump's organization has people right now trying to fox the system so that he can "prove" that the system and the result

  • I have a friend who has had a hand in several of these, although not always a controlling hand. It's clear that none of them actually even pretend to employ natural language understanding, even to realize that they have no useful answers to the questions they are asked. What they really are is audio user interfaces with user manuals that are either hard to find, incomplete, or nonexistent. Until these guys can at least answer a why/what/or how question with a grammatically correct version of "I haven't the

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Alexa at least has several variations on "I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that."

      We actually find the Echo devices useful. I can say, "Alexa, turn the heat at the cottage to 69 degrees at 3:00 p.m. on Friday" and be pretty sure that the place will be warm when we arrive. While there I can turn the fishpond pump at home on for an hour to keep it aerated, turn the lights and music on and off so that it appears occupied, and find out if the current hurricane is likely to hit our niece's house in Louisia

  • ...I don't know if that's improved AI or bad humans

  • We technicians don't even get proper open & free tools [cheapskatesguide.org] to build the modern technological platforms, are they going to give the masses proper information to decide on matters of government?

  • Maybe I'm using Siri wrong, or don't realize everything is can do, but... There's literally two things I every use Siri for because it's the only two things Siri seems to be able to consistently do well:
    1) Hey siri set timer 15 minutes
    2) Hey siri what is 1024 divide by 64

    Anything other than variation on those two requests results in either Siri opening a web browser, which if I wanted a web browser I'd just do it myself, or returning nonsense.

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