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Incident 46: Nest Smoke Alarm Erroneously Stops Alarming

Description: In testing, Google Nest engineers demonstrated that the Nest Wave feature of their Nest Protect: Smoke + CO Alarm could inadvertently silence genuine alarms.

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Entities

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Alleged: Nest Labs developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Fire Victims.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
46
Report Count
6
Incident Date
2014-01-21
Editors
Sean McGregor
Applied Taxonomies
CSETv0, GMF, CSETv1, MIT

CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Incident Number

The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
 

46

GMF Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Known AI Goal Snippets

One or more snippets that justify the classification.
 

(Snippet Text: One user even reported the alarm stubbornly going off for 30 minutes in the middle of the night with no sign of smoke and ignoring prompts to dismiss the alarm after an apparent glitch in the device…, Related Classifications: Substance Detection, Smart Devices)

Known AI Technology Snippets

One or more snippets that justify the classification.
 

(Snippet Text: It’s pretty easy to silence a false alarm, but the chirp because of a failed device cannot be silenced and it happened right before bed., Related Classifications: Gesture Recognition)

CSETv0 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Problem Nature

Indicates which, if any, of the following types of AI failure describe the incident: "Specification," i.e. the system's behavior did not align with the true intentions of its designer, operator, etc; "Robustness," i.e. the system operated unsafely because of features or changes in its environment, or in the inputs the system received; "Assurance," i.e. the system could not be adequately monitored or controlled during operation.
 

Robustness

Physical System

Where relevant, indicates whether the AI system(s) was embedded into or tightly associated with specific types of hardware.
 

Consumer device

Level of Autonomy

The degree to which the AI system(s) functions independently from human intervention. "High" means there is no human involved in the system action execution; "Medium" means the system generates a decision and a human oversees the resulting action; "low" means the system generates decision-support output and a human makes a decision and executes an action.
 

Medium

Nature of End User

"Expert" if users with special training or technical expertise were the ones meant to benefit from the AI system(s)’ operation; "Amateur" if the AI systems were primarily meant to benefit the general public or untrained users.
 

Amateur

Public Sector Deployment

"Yes" if the AI system(s) involved in the accident were being used by the public sector or for the administration of public goods (for example, public transportation). "No" if the system(s) were being used in the private sector or for commercial purposes (for example, a ride-sharing company), on the other.
 

No

Data Inputs

A brief description of the data that the AI system(s) used or were trained on.
 

Motion sensor data

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

7.3. Lack of capability or robustness

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. AI system safety, failures, and limitations

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+1
Is the Nest Protect fire alarm giving users false alarms?
+1
Google's Nest Stops Selling Its Smart Smoke Alarm For Now Due To Faulty Feature
+1
Nest is Recalling Its Smoke Detector (But Don't Send Yours Back)
Nest Labs Recalls to Repair Nest Protect Smoke CO Alarms
Is the Nest Protect fire alarm giving users false alarms?

Is the Nest Protect fire alarm giving users false alarms?

9to5mac.com

Google's Nest Stops Selling Its Smart Smoke Alarm For Now Due To Faulty Feature

Google's Nest Stops Selling Its Smart Smoke Alarm For Now Due To Faulty Feature

forbes.com

Why Nest’s Smoke Detector Fail Is Actually A Win For Everyone

Why Nest’s Smoke Detector Fail Is Actually A Win For Everyone

readwrite.com

Nest is Recalling Its Smoke Detector (But Don't Send Yours Back)

Nest is Recalling Its Smoke Detector (But Don't Send Yours Back)

time.com

When The IOT Fails: Nest Recalls Over 400K Smoke Detectors

When The IOT Fails: Nest Recalls Over 400K Smoke Detectors

forbes.com

Nest Labs Recalls to Repair Nest Protect Smoke CO Alarms

Nest Labs Recalls to Repair Nest Protect Smoke CO Alarms

cpsc.gov

Is the Nest Protect fire alarm giving users false alarms?
9to5mac.com · 2014

Late last September it was rumored that a smart smoke/carbon monoxide detector would join the now Google-owned Nest line of smart thermostats and was later announced in early October to a great response.

The Nest Protect, which retails for …

Google's Nest Stops Selling Its Smart Smoke Alarm For Now Due To Faulty Feature
forbes.com · 2014

One of the cool features Nest's smart smoke alarm, the Nest Protect, introduced was the ability for users to wave their hand to turn off a faulty smoke alarm. Turns out, it's not working so hot.

In a statement today from Nest CEO and cofoun…

Why Nest’s Smoke Detector Fail Is Actually A Win For Everyone
readwrite.com · 2014

ReadWriteHome is an ongoing series exploring the implications of living in connected homes.

Nest Labs’ sudden decision Thursday to halt sales of its smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors surprised users and drew mixed reactions. But wha…

Nest is Recalling Its Smoke Detector (But Don't Send Yours Back)
time.com · 2014

Nest Labs–a startup recently bought by Google which brings high style and web smarts to mundane household devices–is recalling Nest Protect, a smoke and carbon monoxide detector, over concerns that its alarm might fail to go off in emergenc…

When The IOT Fails: Nest Recalls Over 400K Smoke Detectors
forbes.com · 2014

Nest, the smart sensors and controls company recently acquired by Google for $3.2 billion in cash, just officially announced a massive recall of 440,000 Nest Protect smoke and CO detectors due to the possibility of complete failure to sound…

Nest Labs Recalls to Repair Nest Protect Smoke CO Alarms
cpsc.gov · 2016

Remedy:

The repair is an automatic electronic update that disables the Nest Wave feature and is delivered automatically to devices connected wirelessly to the Internet and linked to a Nest account. Consumers should take one of the following…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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