Amazon Used a Clever Trick To Shut Alexa Up



In 2018, Amazon’s Super Bowl ad aired in millions of homes across the country. However, no matter how many times Jeff Bezos muttered the words “Alexa’s lost her voice?”, no Alexa devices turned on during the commercial. That’s because Amazon took steps to ensure that the device wasn’t accidentally triggered by the voice on the commercials. While Amazon refused to elaborate on how it avoids false positives on their commercials, one hacker discovered that the Alexa commercials are intentionally muted in the 3000Hz to 6000Hz range, which apparently tips off the system that the “Alexa” phrase being spoke isn’t a real command and should be ignored.