A family had a private conversation broadcast across the internet to a friend by their Amazon Echo. The horrifying discovery began with an equally chilling phone call, telling them to unplug their devices immediately. "You're being hacked," the voice said. As it turns out, that person had accidentally been sent a full recording of the family's conversation. The sounds had been picked up and then sent by the Echo to a friend, who could then hear the entire conversation.

Be careful of what you say around your Echo devices. A Portland woman was shocked to discover that Echo recorded and sent audio of a private conversation to one of their contacts without their knowledge, according to KIRO 7. The woman, who is only identified as Danielle, said her family had installed the popular voice-activated speakers throughout their home. It wasn't until a random contact called to let them know that he'd received a call from Alexa that they realized their device had mistakenly transmitted a private conversation. The contact, who was one of her husband's work employees, told the woman to'unplug your Alexa devices right now. 'We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house,' the woman said.

No matter how suspicious it has seemed that Amazon is encouraging us to put listening devices in every room of our homes, the company has always said that its Echo assistants are not listening in on or recording conversations. Over and over again, company spokespeople have promised that they only start recording if someone says the wake word: "Alexa". It's a spiel Danielle, an Alexa user from Portland, Oregon, had believed. She'd installed Echo devices and smart bulbs in every room in her house, accepting Amazon's claims that they were not invading her privacy. But today she asked the company to investigate after an Alexa device recorded a private conversation between her and her husband and sent it to a random number in their address book without their permission.

In case you needed another reminder that Amazon's Echo, an internet-connected recording device designed to listen and respond to verbal commands, can pose security and privacy risks for you and your loved ones, here you go. A family in Portland, Oregon contacted the company recently to ask it to investigate why the device had recorded private conversations in their home and sent the audio to a person in another state. The family did as told, after the employee told them about receiving an audio file containing what seemed like a private conversation. At first the family did not believe the employee, but then the employee was able to relay details of the private conversation. "My husband and I would joke and say I'd be these devices are listening to what we're saying," a woman named Danielle, who didn't want her last name used, told KIRO-TV in Portland.

A Portland, Oregon family has claimed that their Amazon Echo recorded a conversation and then sent it to a random person on their contact list. Two weeks ago, the person -- an employee of the husband -- sent them audio files of their chats that he'd received from their smart speaker. The family had set up a household of Alexa-equipped devices to control heat, lights and security. When the incident happened, the family unplugged them all and contacted Amazon. "They said'our engineers went through your logs, and they saw exactly what you told us, they saw exactly what you said happened, and we're sorry.' He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes and he said we really appreciate you bringing this to our attention, this is something we need to fix!" the wife told KIRO 7. When reached for comment, the tech giant provided the following statement to KIRO 7; "Amazon takes privacy very seriously. We investigated what happened and determined this was an extremely rare occurrence. We are taking steps to avoid this from happening in the future."

A family in Portland, Oregon, claims that their Alexa, a voice-controlled smart speaker by Amazon, eavesdropped on their conversation and then shared it. They called the company to investigate the issue and vowed never to use the device again. "My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," Danielle, who did not give her last name, told KIRO-TV on Thursday. She said her family was shocked to find out that a talk they had in their home was sent to one of their contacts hundreds of miles away in Seattle, Washington. The family has the voice-controlled smart devices installed in every room, which they use to control the heat, lights, and security system in their home.

A family in Portland, Ore., received a nightmarish phone call two weeks ago. "Unplug your Alexa devices right now," a voice on the other line said. Alexa-powered Echo devices in their house had silently sent recordings to the caller without the family's permission. The person, who happened to be an employee of the husband, was in the family's contact list. "My husband and I would joke and say, 'I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying,' " a woman who identified herself only by her first name, Danielle, told KIRO 7, a news station covering Seattle and western Washington state.

Artificial intelligence: Since the term was first coined in 1955 by the late Stanford computer scientist John McCarthy, AI has steadily moved out of the realm of science fiction and now has significant impact on our everyday lives. Related: Is Artificial Intelligence Replacing Your Intelligence? Voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant utilize voice recognition to transform the way we search for information and interact with our devices. Innovations such as self-driving cars and wearable tech are positioned to transform transportation and healthcare in the foreseeable future. The Harvard Business Review has predicted that AI will affect the economy and our lives on a magnitude similar to that of the steam engine, electricity and the industrial combustion engine.

CAMPBELL, Calif., May 24, 2018 – Building on its strategy to develop innovations that drive retail transformation for brands, retailers and manufacturers, PLM leader Centric Software announces the unveiling of its first artificial intelligence-based PLM module. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals. The term'artificial intelligence' dates back to the 1950's when computer scientist John McCarthy coined the phrase to describe the potential'thinking machines' of the future. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are systems modeled on the problem-solving abilities of the human brain, breaking complex problems down into different layers of information comprised of many smaller problems. Applications vary considerably ranging from virtual assistants like'Alexa' and'Siri' to Netflix viewing recommendations to Amazon recommending things we might like to buy.

CAMPBELL, CA, USA, May 24, 2018 – Building on its strategy to develop innovations that drive retail transformation for brands, retailers and manufacturers, PLM leader Centric Software announces the unveiling of its first artificial intelligence-based PLM module. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals. The term'artificial intelligence' dates back to the 1950's when computer scientist John McCarthy coined the phrase to describe the potential'thinking machines' of the future. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are systems modeled on the problem-solving abilities of the human brain, breaking complex problems down into different layers of information comprised of many smaller problems. Applications vary considerably ranging from virtual assistants like'Alexa' and'Siri' to Netflix viewing recommendations to Amazon recommending things we might like to buy.