“No one” in this case is artificial intelligence. A study by researchers at the University of Surrey has found that AI can be programmed to accurately identify which key is being pressed more than 90 percent of the time just by listening to it.
What secrets can AI pick up on by eavesdropping on your typing?
Answer: Your passwords.
![Closeup image of a business woman's hands working and typing on laptop keyboard on glass table](https://erepublic.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6b88e8a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5882x3067+0+427/resize/840x438!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ferepublic-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fee%2F47%2Fd2401c75401bb3f94de7ac934328%2Fhttps-download.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZCI6ICJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEiLCAiayI6ICJwaG90by82NDI1NjczODIvaHVnZS5qcGciLCAiZGMiOiAiaWRsXzEyMyIsICJlIjogMTY0NjExMzI2NywgIm0iOiAxfSwgIjBiRkt2azlSQVFhaGdFaUZxQUkrQTJadFIzOCJd%2Fshutterstock_642567382.jpg)
It’s not enough anymore to make sure no one can see your password as you type it in. Now, you’re going to have to make sure no one can hear it either.
“No one” in this case is artificial intelligence. A study by researchers at the University of Surrey has found that AI can be programmed to accurately identify which key is being pressed more than 90 percent of the time just by listening to it.
The team used an Apple MacBook Pro and recorded the sound of each key on the laptop being pressed 25 different times with different fingers and pressures. The sounds were recorded through a Zoom meeting and on a smartphone on a call. They then fed some of the data to a machine learning system to teach it to identify the sound of each key. When they tested the system on the remaining data, it was able to correctly identify which keys were being pressed 95 percent of the time for the recording on a call and 93 percent of the time for the recording over Zoom.
“No one” in this case is artificial intelligence. A study by researchers at the University of Surrey has found that AI can be programmed to accurately identify which key is being pressed more than 90 percent of the time just by listening to it.