Facebook will resume listening to Portal commands to train AI

Facebook on Wednesday revealed a few practices it intends to implement on its newly released Portal range, the company’s home video-calling devices.

Users will still have the ability to disable Portal’s microphone and camera if they wish, but voice recordings of “Hey Portal” will now be sent to a “trained” Facebook team for review.

“You can view, hear and delete any of your ‘Hey Portal’ voice interactions in your Facebook Activity Log. You can also turn off voice storage in Settings anytime, which means that your voice interactions are not stored or reviewed,” the company explained.

The news backtracks from Facebook’s earlier claims, which said the company had stopped using human contractors to listen to voice recordings in Facebook Messenger.

In a statement to Bloomberg, Facebook said that it was only reinstating the practice for Portal to help train AI to better recognise voice commands.

The news confirms that the company is no longer recording conversations in Messenger, for now.

Feature image: Facebook