Listening In

How Audio Surveillance Became Artificial Intelligence

Toby Heys, David Jackson, Marsha Courneya (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

296 Seiten

2026
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-34038-1 (ISBN)

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Using a series of colourful case studies, this book traces a short history of covert listening and audio surveillance in the electronic age and examines the ways that it has shaped the development of artificial intelligence

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.

Toby Heys is a professor of digital arts at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and co-founder of the AUDINT sonic research unit. David Jackson is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Visualisation at the School of Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Marsha Courneya is an Associate Lecturer in Digital Dramaturgy at the International Film School of Cologne and doctoral researcher in Digital Culture and Communication at Birkbeck University, London, UK.

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

Erscheinungsdatum	20.12.2025
Reihe/Serie	Bloomsbury Studies in Digital Cultures
Zusatzinfo	16 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
	Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik
	Naturwissenschaften
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-350-34038-3 / 1350340383
ISBN-13	978-1-350-34038-1 / 9781350340381
Zustand	Neuware