Google has paid $68 million to settle a privacy lawsuit that claimed its voice-activated assistant spied inappropriately on smartphone and smart speaker users. The class action was filed in a California federal court.

Plaintiffs accused Google’s parent company, Alphabet, of illegally recording and disseminating private conversations when Google Assistant was triggered, in violation of privacy laws.

Plaintiffs objected to receiving ads after the assistant “misperceived” trigger words such as ‘hey google’ then listened to conversations. They claimed recordings of the conversations were shared with advertisers in order to send them targeted advertising.

Misperceived trigger words are known as “false accepts.”

Google denied wrongdoing, but settled to “avoid the risk, cost and uncertainty of litigation,” according to the court papers. The settlement covers people who bought Google devices such as smart speakers and phones, or were subjected to false accepts since May 18, 2016.

Apple reached a similar $95 million settlement with smartphone users in December 2024.

In other AI advertising related news, ChatGPT will introduce advertising to the free and low cost tiers of its AI service to try to recoup the massive costs of development and operation of the generative AI tool. A trial will begin in America and will then be rolled out around the world.

OpenAI says it will give users expanded access to messaging, image creation, file uploads and memory for $8 USD per month. “In the coming weeks, we’re also planning to start testing ads in the U.S. for the free and Go tiers, so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits or without having to pay.

“Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions will not include ads.”

Whether OpenAI can build the type of analytics required to justify ad spend and compete with existing online platforms such as Google Adsense remains to be seen.  Below is a mock up of how ads will appear on ChatGPT, based on the the content of the prompts you feed into the service.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the themes for this year’s World Radio Day. The theme explores ways to use AI in radio responsibly and ethically, but also allows responsible publishers and broadcasters to call out the unethical use of AI and to strengthen the bond radio broadcasters have with their audiences.

_{Image: Reuters, licenced to radioinfo/radiotoday}