A recent study by the Consumer Technology Association has found that 31 percent of American households now own a smart speaker device, with Amazon and Google leading the charge.

A newly published study by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has revealed that 31 percent of American households own a smart speaker such as the Amazon Echo or Google Home. This is a rapid increase in ownership given that in 2016, only eight percent of U.S. households owned one of these devices.

2,608 U.S. based adults were surveyed as part of the CTA’s 21st Annual Consumer Technology Ownership and Market Potential Study; the study examined individuals current ownership and plans to purchase over 60 tech products. The CTA report sees the rapid growth in smart speaker sales as an endorsement of A.I. by the American public.

Steve Koenig, CTA vice president of research, commented on the study stating: “Americans are embracing A.I. tech in the home at unprecedented levels. The dramatic rise in household ownership of intelligent devices like smart speakers shows American consumers endorse the benefits and convenience of artificial intelligence and voice recognition to help them with everyday tasks.”

Digital Trends reports a number of interesting tech figures, stating that the most-owned tech products in consumer households are The Three Screens (TTS) Digital Trends writes: “TVs, smartphones, and laptops. TV ownership leads at 95%, followed by smartphones in 91% of U.S. homes, and laptops in 75% of American households.”

The CTA believes that Americans moving towards A.I. focused devices is likely in the future: “Innovation is spurring demand for emerging technologies and driving consumers to upgrade existing devices,” said Koenig. “The paradigm in consumer technology is rapidly evolving to a new IoT – The Intelligence of Things. A.I., voice recognition, sensors, wireless connectivity and more are bringing greater capabilities and convenience to consumers.”

A recent Bloomberg report claimed that thousands of Amazon workers listen in on users Alexa conversations. The workers are based out of Amazon facilities in Boston, Costa Rica, India, and Romania and spend nine hours a day listening in on various conversations to ensure that Alexa understands what users are saying. In December of 2018, Breitbart News reported that an “error” with an Amazon Alexa device gave a man access to another user’s 1,700 voice recordings. The German user “got access to more than a thousand recordings from another user,” due to what Amazon described as an “unfortunate case” which was “the result of a human error and an isolated single case.”

Breitbart News recently published an article describing how to prevent an Amazon Alexa device from sending data back to Amazon. In order to ensure Amazon collects no data from an Alexa in your home, don’t buy one.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com