American technology company Google says its contractors listens to recordings of what people say to artificial intelligence system Google Assistant.
美国科技公司谷歌表示，该公司的承包商会收听人们与谷歌语音助手的对话录音。谷歌语音助手是谷歌公司开发的人工智能系统。

The company admitted that people can review those recordings after some of its Dutch language audio clips were leaked to the public.
该公司承认，在一些荷兰语录音剪辑被公开泄漏之后，人们可以查看这些录音。

Google product manager David Monsees wrote about the leak in a recent blog post. He said the company is investigating their release.
谷歌产品经理大卫·蒙塞斯在最近的博客文章中写到了这次泄漏事件。他说公司正在调查这些录音的扩散。

Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS got hold of more than 1,000 Google Assistant recordings. It noted in a story that some recordings contained sensitive personal conversations, as well as information that identified the person speaking.
比利时广播公司VRT NES获得了超过1千条谷歌智能助手的录音。该广播公司在新闻中指出，其中一些录音包含敏感的个人对话，以及可以识别出说话人的信息。

Google said the recordings do not identify user account information. It added that contractors who listen to the audio are told not to take notes of background conversations.
谷歌公司表示，这些录音并不能识别出用户账号信息。该公司还表示，收听音频的承包商被告知不要记录背景对话。

Google said its contract work force listens to recordings to better understand speech patterns and differences in regional accents. Google's user terms say the company may use the recordings. They state that Google Assistant "records your voice and audio on Google services to improve speech recognition."
谷歌公司称其合约员工收听录音以便更好地了解语音模式和方言差异。谷歌公司的用户条款称，该公司可能会使用这些录音。用户条款声明，谷歌智能助手“会在谷歌服务器上保存您的语音和音频，以便改善语音识别能力。”

Monsees wrote that Google works with contractors around the world to study the recordings.
蒙塞斯写道，谷歌公司与世界各地的承包商一起合作研究这些录音。

Google's terms do not exactly say that people examine the recordings. But the user terms do say the company could study them as it improves services or creates new features.
谷歌的用户条款并未言明有人会检查这些录音。但是用户条款确实声称该公司在改善服务和开发新功能时可能会研究这些录音。

Earlier this year, the Bloomberg financial service reported that Amazon's Alexa also uses contractors to listen to recordings. Amazon officials confirmed the report.
今年年初，彭博金融服务公司报道了亚马逊公司的Alexa语音助手也雇佣承包商收听录音。亚马逊公司证实这一报道。

Google's recording feature can be disabled, but doing so means Assistant loses some of its technical abilities. Users who turn off the recording feature lose the ability for the Assistant to recognize individual voices and learn their speech patterns.
谷歌的录音功能可以被禁用，但是这样做就意味着语音助手会失去一些技术能力。关闭录音功能的用户将会失去语音助手识别个人语音并学习他们语音模式的能力。

Google Assistant is available on more than 1 billion devices, including smartphones and smart speakers. It has become more popular in the smart speaker market, but still has fewer users than Amazon.
谷歌智能助手应用于超过10亿台设备，其中包括智能手机和智能音箱。它在智能音箱市场上越拉越受欢迎，但是用户数仍然少于亚马逊。

I'm John Russell.
我是约翰·罗塞尔。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，禁止转载，违者必究！)

American technology company Google says its contractors listens to recordings of what people say to artificial intelligence system Google Assistant.

The company admitted that people can review those recordings after some of its Dutch language audio clips were leaked to the public.

In this Jan. 8, 2019 photo shows the Google Assistant, which includes an "interpreter mode" that enables some of Google's smart home devices to work as a translator, at the Google display area at CES International in Las Vegas.

Google product manager David Monsees wrote about the leak in a recent blog post. He said the company is investigating their release.

Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS got hold of more than 1,000 Google Assistant recordings. It noted in a story that some recordings contained sensitive personal conversations, as well as information that identified the person speaking.

Google said the recordings do not identify user account information. It added that contractors who listen to the audio are told not to take notes of background conversations.

Google said its contract work force listens to recordings to better understand speech patterns and differences in regional accents. Google's user terms say the company may use the recordings. They state that Google Assistant "records your voice and audio on Google services to improve speech recognition."

Monsees wrote that Google works with contractors around the world to study the recordings.

Google's terms do not exactly say that people examine the recordings. But the user terms do say the company could study them as it improves services or creates new features.

Earlier this year, the Bloomberg financial service reported that Amazon's Alexa also uses contractors to listen to recordings. Amazon officials confirmed the report.

Google's recording feature can be disabled, but doing so means Assistant loses some of its technical abilities. Users who turn off the recording feature lose the ability for the Assistant to recognize individual voices and learn their speech patterns.

Google Assistant is available on more than 1 billion devices, including smartphones and smart speakers. It has become more popular in the smart speaker market, but still has fewer users than Amazon.

I'm John Russell.

Rachel Lerman reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted her report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Words in This Story

contractor – n. a person who is asked to perform work or to provide goods at a set price or by a certain date

artificial intelligence – n. an area of computer science dealing with the creation of intelligent behavior in computers

blog – n. a website that has personal comments of one person

transcribe – v. to make a written copy of (something)

conversation – n. a talk involving two or more people

background – adj. relating to events taking place behind or next to the main object

pattern – n. the repeated way in which something happens or is done

accent – n. a way of speaking of a group of people

feature – n. a quality; the form or appearance of someone or something

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.