Siri, Alexa, and other computerized companions are typically pretty good at understanding the strange questions we're asking them. Now, research that was presented at the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing in Shanghai this week might make it easier for machines to discern what we're saying without even hearing us.

When used for evil, this might seem like a frightening prospect. "It's the end of the (privacy) world as we know it..." writes KurzweilAI.net. But, on the more innocuous end of the spectrum, more advanced lip reading automation could lead to better movie dubbing, IEEE Spectrum says.

It's no easy feat to teach a machine to read lips. Part of that is because the mouth only makes up to 14 different shapes, while those shapes produce about 50 different sounds. That means the same shape (think P or B) can produce different sounds.