Amazon Filed A Patent To Record You Before You Even Say "Alexa"

"While such phrasings may be natural for a user, current speech processing systems are not configured to handle commands that are not preceded by a wakeword," wrote the patent application's authors, Kurt Wesley Piersol and Gabriel Beddingfield. "Offered is a system to correct this problem." In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, "The technology in this patent is not in use, and referring to the potential use of patents is highly speculative." The spokesperson added that Amazon files many patent applications that are not ultimately implemented into consumer-facing products, and that patents do not necessarily reflect "current or near-future states of products and services." According to the patent application, after a wake word is detected, Alexa may "look backwards" to determine if the command came before the wake word, and use pauses in speech to identify the beginning of the command.