Mobility, as well as app ecosystem, have made remarkable changes in our daily lives. I believe that it has transformed the way we deal with our activities whether it is online shopping, entertainment etc. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence is equally having a greater impact on our interactions with our gadgets along with mobile apps. AI is now multi-faceted with a wide range of impacts, especially in mobile app solutions. From deep learning, advanced machine learning to natural language processing as well as advanced algorithms, AI currently works at various levels. It assists in creating new as well as unique applications.

University researchers from Berkeley and Georgetown found in a 2016 paper that sounds unintelligible to humans can set off voice assistants in general, which raised concerns of exploitation by attackers. Amazon did not immediately comment on the matter, but it previously told The New York Times that it has taken steps to keep its devices secure.

We're learning an important lesson about cutting-edge voice technology: Amazon's Alexa is always listening. Putting live microphones in our homes has always been an out-there idea. But tech companies successfully marketed talking speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home to millions by assuring they only record us when we give a "wake word." That turns out to be a misnomer. These devices are always "awake," passively listening for the command to activate, such as "Alexa," "O.K. Google," or "Hey Siri."

We're learning an important lesson about cutting-edge voice technology: Amazon's Alexa is always listening. Putting live microphones in our homes has always been an out-there idea. But tech companies successfully marketed talking speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home to millions by assuring they only record us when we give a "wake word." That turns out to be a misnomer. These devices are always "awake," passively listening for the command to activate, such as "Alexa," "O.K. Google," or "Hey Siri."

SEATTLE – A couple's private conversation was mysteriously recorded by their Amazon Echo device and sent to one of their contacts, igniting privacy concerns about the voice-activated gadgets the online retailer wants to make as commonplace in homes as televisions. The two found about it when they received a phone call two weeks ago from one of the husband's employees telling them to "Unplug your Alexa devices right now. You're being hacked," news station KIRO 7 reported. Inc. said in a statement to the station that it was an "extremely rare occurrence." The Portland, Oregon, couple used Amazon's voice-activated devices throughout their home to control heat, lights and the security system, according to the news report. Amazon in 2014 introduced the new line of devices, which can also stream music and order goods from Amazon via voice command.

This is the first chapter in Element AI's Foundations Series on AI-First Design (AI1D). Each chapter aims to define the component parts of AI1D in order to create a common language with which to explore this new era of design. You can read the intro to the series here, and sign up to stay tuned for the next chapter here. As a designer, why should you need to be able to understand artificial intelligence? It's a term being bandied about so much in media and tech circles lately, a kind of catchall that could be describing anything from virtual personal assistants, robots, sci-fi characters, or the latest deep learning algorithm. Perhaps you work in AI and you have a more nuanced understanding of these distinct fields, or maybe you just sense that your work will be affected in some way by AI in the coming years, but you're not quite sure how.

A couple in Portland, Oregon joked that their Amazon Alexa might be listening in to their private conversations. The joke came to an abrupt end when they discovered a conversation was indeed recorded by Alexa - and then sent to an apparently random person in their contact list. "Unplug your Alexa devices right now!" warned the puzzled recipient, according to ABC affiliate station KIRO7, which first reported the story. Amazon has an explanation as to what happened. But first, here's how Danielle - who didn't want to share her surname with ABC's reporter - described the rather alarming chain of events.

On Thursday, Seattle news station KIRO 7 published a disconcerting story. A Portland family discovered that a snippet of private conversation had been recorded by an Amazon Echo and sent to a random person in their contact list. The report instantly sparked concern and outrage that Amazon's Echo smart speaker is listening to and recording much more than the company claims. The woman, who only identified herself as Danielle, said that one of her husband's employees called the family to say that he had received a text message containing an audio recording of one of their conversations about hardwood floors. "I felt invaded," she told KIRO 7. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'"

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Uneasy smart-home inhabitants have long wondered whether their obliging devices are quietly eavesdropping on their private conversations. After all, if your smart speaker is listening for its wake word, doesn't that mean it's always listening? Now people's paranoia appears to have been confirmed--and then some--with Seattle local news station KIRO 7 reporting that a Portland family's Echo recorded their private conversation and then sent it, as an audio file, to someone in their contact list. A former smart-home enthusiast, named only as Danielle, told KIRO 7 that she and her husband recently received a call from her husband's employee in Seattle, telling them to unplug their Echo immediately.

SAN FRANCISCO – A Portland family's private conversations were recorded by their Amazon Echo smart speaker and emailed to a random phone contact of the father, they told a local TV station. Amazon explained that an unforseen combination of random words in a conversation the family didn't realize was being overheard by Alexa trigged an action no one expected, least of all Amazon, which is now working to make sure it doesn't happen again. The Oregon family contacted Amazon to investigate after a private conversation in their home was recorded by their Amazon Echo -- the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and the recorded audio was sent to the phone of someone in Seattle who was in the father's contact list. "My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," Danielle, who did not want us to use her last name, told KIRO TV in Seattle. The family's house has multiple Echo devices that control heating, lights and security system. At first they didn't believe it when the colleague called to tell them he'd received recordings of their conversations.