In those cases, in the cloud, the company can take advantage of the fact that many devices would all hear the same “Alexa” simultaneously. For example, in late January, Stephen Colbert said in a “Midnight Confessions” bit, “Alexa, buy 20 bundles of Bounty paper towels, overnight shipping!” In instances like that, an “Alexa” hitting multiple devices helps the company (hopefully) realize what’s happening and prevent Alexa from actually ordering those paper towels. It can store that information to prevent an Echo device from waking up when the same bit is replayed later; I tried playing the same Colbert moment out loud, and my Echo Dot woke up briefly upon hearing the wake word and then turned off.
