Apple said it is now, by default, opting customers out of a program that listens to audio snippets scraped up by its voice-assistant, Siri. The company announced the decision in a blog post this week and marks the most significant step since it decided to suspend the program earlier this summer. Apple has been identified as one of many companies that was harvesting audio snippets from users in an effort to improve the accuracy of its voice-assistant. Unbeknownst to most, those snippets were then reviewed by human contractors. 'As a result of our review, we realize we haven't been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize,' wrote Apple. According to the company, it will will resume its program later this fall with several major changes.

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple is apologizing for allowing outsiders to listen to snippets of people's recorded conversations with its digital assistant Siri, a practice that undermined its attempts to position itself as a trusted steward of privacy. As part of the apology posted Wednesday, Apple reiterated an earlier pledge to stop keeping audio recorded through Siri unless consumers give their permission. When permission is granted, Apple said only its own employees will be allowed to review audio to help improve the service. Previously, the company hired contractors to listen to some recordings. "We realize haven't been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize," Apple conceded. It's not yet clear how Apple will seek permission, though in the past, Apple has typically requested permissions through prompts during software update installations.

Apple says it will no longer retain audio recordings of your interactions with Siri by default and has issued an apology for having done so previously. "We realize we haven't been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize," Apple stated on its website. Apple had taken a lot of heat for the practice recently following a report by the Guardian that contractors "regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control, or grading'" Siri. "We know customers have been concerned … We heard their concerns," the company wrote. Apple had previously announced that it halted the grading practice, which, following software updates and other changes, will resume in the fall.

Be honest – how many times have you used the'Recommended for you' section on Amazon? Ever since I found out a few years back that machine learning powers this section – I have been hooked. I keep an eye on that section each time I log into Amazon. There's a reason companies like Netflix, Google, Amazon, Flipkart, etc. spend millions perfecting their recommendation engine. It is a powerful acquisition channel and enhances the customer's experience. Let me use a recent example to showcase their power.

The BBC is launching its own voice assistant, appropriately called'Beeb' (though the efficacy of that wake word is completely suspect in a world where people might talk about Justin Bieber, just saying). Upon hearing this news, you might be tempted to think, "Ugh, why? The Beeb assistant might be a boondoggle, a waste of British taxpayer money, and a classic example of the BBC making a tech thing without a super clear reason or need just because it can. In fact, I would put even money on it being all three of those things, but I'm still rooting for it anyway. Command Line is our daily newsletter about personal tech.

Quite unlike what you may be inclined to believe, artificial intelligence has been around for quite a while. It's just that it is only over the past few years that the world has found d increasingly mainstream applications for it. Its adoption has multiplied in the recent past that you'd be hard-pressed to think of things where either artificial intelligence is not already being used or where its integration isn't being considered or worked upon. Think about it -- what do you think drives virtual assistants like Alexa, Google Now, Siri, and more? The point is that it isn't surprising to see that artificial intelligence also makes its way into e-commerce, which has firmly established itself as a leading way to shop today.

"Today, people are frustrated when a digital assistant says, 'Sorry, I couldn't understand that,'" said Mr. Chapman, who was named CEO of the venture-capital-backed startup this week after about five years as director of engineering for Amazon.com Quantum computers "could alleviate those problems," he said. That's because quantum computers have the potential to sort through a vast number of possibilities within a fraction of a second to come up with a probable solution. A Rubik's Cube, in an analogy to illustrate the power of quantum computers, could be solved instantaneously because the technology can process different combinations at once. A classical computer, by contrast, would need to search through the possibilities sequentially, which could take days, months or even longer, IonQ executives said.

The Guardian reports the plan to launch an Alexa rival, which has been given the working title "Beeb," and will apparently be light on features, given the Corp's relatively slender developer resources versus major global tech giants. The BBC's own news site says the digital voice assistant will launch next year without any proprietary hardware to house it. Instead the corporation is designing the software to work on "all smart speakers, TVs and mobiles." Why is a publicly funded broadcaster ploughing money into developing an AI when the market is replete with commercial offerings -- from Amazon's Alexa to Google's Assistant, Apple's Siri and Samsung's Bixby to name a few? The intent is to "experiment with new programmes, features and experiences without someone else's permission to build it in a certain way," a BBC spokesperson told BBC news.

Hundreds of Apple workers across Europe who were employed to check Siri recordings for errors have lost their jobs after the company announced it was suspending the programme earlier this month. More than 300 employees have had their contracts ended in the company's Cork facility alone, according to former employees, with more sent home from other sites across Europe. The staff had been on paid leave since 2 August, the day Apple announced its decision to suspend the programme, referred to as "grading", as it conducted "a thorough review". The decision followed a story in the Guardian that revealed the workers frequently heard confidential medical information and couples having sex while checking the Siri recordings. The graders, employed through contracting firms, were sent home that Friday, with many told there was no work for them due to "technical errors".

Hearing the young daughter of a friend demanding answers from Amazon's virtual assistant, Alexa, gave me pause for thought, particularly during Women's Month. As writer Chandra Steel points out, our experiences with AI can teach and train it, but we are also shaped by these interactions. So,how is always having a compliant female virtual assistant shaping us? "Someone on TV has only to say, 'Alexa,' and she lights up. USC Sociology Professor SafiyaUmoja Noble says virtual assistants have produced a rise of command-based speech at women's voices. 'Siri, find me [fill in the blank]' is something that children may learn to do as they play with smart devices. This is a powerful socialization tool that teaches us about the role of women, girls, and people who are gendered female to respond on demand."