Listening In : How Audio Surveillance Became Artificial Intelligence / Toby Heys, David Jackson & Marsha Courneya.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heys, Toby, author.

Courneya, Marsha, author.

Jackson, David, author.

Series:

Bloomsbury Studies in Digital Cultures.

Bloomsbury Studies in Digital Cultures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Espionage--History.

Espionage.

Electronic surveillance.

Eavesdropping.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2025.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2026.

System Details:

text file rdaft

Summary:

In 1945, W. Averell Harriman, US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, was presented with a carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States as a 'gesture of friendship' by a delegation from the Soviet's Young Pioneer Organization. Unbeknownst to him, one of the first covert listening devices, invented by Leon Theremin was hidden within it and was subsequently used to listen in on the ambassador's conversations for six years before being discovered. This book uses remarkable tales like this to tell the story of how modern audio surveillance developed and its important role in the evolution of today's artificial intelligence. Beginning with post-WW2 monitoring devices, Listening In traces an arc through the Cold War era into the present day in which state and commercial spyware can record our calls, copy messages and secretly film us. It subsequently moves into the near future where AI-assisted technologies can listen to things we have not yet said as well as digitally simulate and record our voices after we have died. Exploring how mass audio surveillance is carried out through devices such as smart phones, speakers and baby monitors and used to inform and train AI algorithms, the book provides fresh insights into how we are allowing our personal privacies to be traded for enhanced social connectivity and technological convenience. Ultimately Listening In reveals how the urge to listen and record everything that has ever been uttered is scored deeply into the technological operating systems of cultures from around the world. Listening In is also available in audiobook format from audiobook retailers.

Contents:

Dedications Introduction Section 1: Embedded Bugs and Tunnels 1. The Thing 2. Operation Gold 3. Shoehorn 4. Acoustic Kitty Section 2: Massive Distributed Monitoring Systems 5. STASI 6. ECHELON 7. SORM 8. PRISM Section 3: Domotic Self-Surveillance Cultures 9. Smartphones 10. Smart Speakers 11. Smart Toys 12. Smart Baby Monitors Section 4: Ambient Interfaces, Arcane Intelligence 13. AlterEgo 14. Jukebox 15. Gatebox 16. Thanabot Coda Bibliography

ISBN:

1-350-34042-1

OCLC:

1545807217