Not only can it listen, it does, even when it’s not supposed to. And their AI continually monitors and makes marketing suggestions.
Just a few of my examples:
My phone is the only device with location turned on, so I can use maps via Android Auto when traveling. I left the house one day without my phone for an errand, and when I returned my phone asked me about my visit with that retailer. I was being tracked, via my Ford Escape’s satellite system, even without my phone in the car.
I was discussing what to put under out cat boxes at our new house, and I suggested the WeatherTech mats for the house. I had ordered from WT years ago, but opted out of emails long ago. By the time I got back to my computer I had a marketing email from them, and the first suggestion was the mats we were just discussing.
Last, just two weeks ago I was sitting in my car waiting for the wife, who was shopping. I had the phone plugged in with maps on the display, and a suggestion for a podcast about intermittent fasting came up. I do restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, and we were just discussing that with friends the day prior.
It’s everywhere — you can’t stop it. And I’m certain AI is making these suggestions. They’re far too specific, tailored and sudden for “human hands” to be involved.
Not without rapid depletion of the battery, which you would notice. The only thing that your cell phone does that you could consider spying is pinging the tower every few seconds in order to maintain the registration, and pass it to the next tower if you are moving.
I am probably going to be caught off guard when real Artificial Intelligence comes along. What people call AI these days is A but not at all I. It doesn’t take any intelligence at all to create a program that will monitor spoken text and recognize words, then match those words with a list of products that are available. The Amazon Interface doesn’t care about anything in particular just about matching your thoughts with products it might make money from selling you. It’s not that intelligent. If you are talking around a dog it will ignore everything until you say Go or Meat. Dods are much smarter than AI.
Solution: DO NOT BUY A CAR WITH A BUILT IN SATELLITE SYSTEM.