Kodi interrupted by voice interface on Nvidia Shield

This sort of thing happens repeatedly:

  • I am watching ncis on kodi on a new nvidia shield and suddenly the ever helpful voice input screen pops up wanting me to say something. I am not even holding the remote or the controller.
  • The only button on the shield remote that works is BACK but this does not bring me back to my program; it brings me to the choice of providers for the episode.
  • can I get back to the stream in some way or turn the damn helpful voice screen off or desensitize the remote?