The always-on-the-record era

TL;DR: For better or worse (probably worse), a new productivity trend has arrived: using AI tools to record, transcribe, and analyze every single conversation. Unsurprisingly, it’s a habit the unknowingly recorded have some objections to—and could also come with big legal consequences.

What happened: You can probably assume you’re on the record everywhere now—work meetings, happy hours, and even first dates—per a viral Wall Street Journal report last week. A growing number of people are capturing every social interaction using AI notetaking apps, slim mics that attach to phones, or wearables like smart glasses, pins, rings, bracelets, you name it.

For these self-appointed stenographers, the payoff is that they never miss a beat: The AI can summarize every convo and even spit out a to-do list. For everyone else, it’s a privacy nightmare, as many of these recording enthusiasts don’t appear to be asking for permission. And there’s a decent chance that they could be running afoul of the law.

The fine print: Most states, including New York, only require one-party consent to record convos—you can tape one you’re part of without the other people’s say-so. But Silicon Valley-ites are in an all-party consent state (of which there are 11), where everyone involved has to explicitly agree to being recorded—not that that’s stopped people.

Then there’s all the other potential liabilities. Lawyers have long sounded the alarm on automated recording tools, warning that inviting an AI bot to meetings is a “ticking time bomb of legal risk,” as the New York Times put it in May. Picture every offhand comment you’ve ever made being subpoenaed or made discoverable in someone’s lawsuit.

Read the room: Beyond the legal issues, there’s the simple fact that constantly capturing everyone’s words probably won’t make you popular, as the online reactions to the WSJ’s report have made abundantly clear. (We’d pay to sit in on the future tech bro etiquette class covering this topic.)

Those who hate the idea of always being recorded are now deploying some inventive methods to show their dissent—like adding “I do not consent to transcribing or recording” to their Zoom display names, per WSJ.

Bottom line: Recording everything might be the newest life optimization hack, but always being recorded isn’t exactly optimal for your stress levels. —WK