Why Big Companies Are Investing in a Service that Listens to Phone Calls - Jessica Leber, Technology Review

Services that anticipate our needs could help us deal with information overload. Would you give your wireless carrier permission to listen in on your phone calls? Telefónica, one of the world’s largest mobile carriers, is testing a technology that can understand conversations and quickly pull up relevant information. If that info turns out to be useful, customers may want to invite it to listen in. The technology is being built by a small San Francisco startup, Expect Labs, which is announcing strategic investments from the venture capital arms of three weighty backers today: Samsung, Intel, and Telefónica Digital, the business unit the telecom company launched in 2011 to unearth new revenue opportunities. The size of the investments was not disclosed. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514016/why-big-companies-are-investing-in-a-service-that-listens-to-phone-calls/