Your smart speaker could be listening in on your conversations by accident

For example, you can say 'OK Google' to activate your Google Assistant speaker, or 'Alexa' to summon Amazon's virtual assistant.The researchers found that smart speakers, including the first-gen Google Home Mini, the Apple HomePod, Amazon’s second- and third-gen Echo Dot, and the Harman Kardon Invoke, were routinely activated by words other than their dedicated wake words, and as result, listening in for as long as 43 seconds.They did this by simulating real-world conditions, so played the smart speakers 125 hours of audio from various Netflix shows, including The Office, The Big Bang Therory, and Narcos (though, hopefully your day-to-day life isn't quite like the latter). Only 8.44% of the activations occurred consistently across 75% of the tests, which the researchers said "could be due to some randomness in the way smart speakers detect wake words, or the smart speakers may learn from previous mistakes and change the way they detect wake words".For now, the methods that artificially intelligent voice assistants use to learn and adapt their behavior is little understood by all except the companies that create them – but it's encouraging to think that our smart speakers are constantly adapting and getter smarter as a result.