I think your Google example is a good one, but for a different reason.
Google was already analyzing everything you stored and wrote in their services; they didn’t need to use AI as a cover for doing that, they just did it. They didn’t even need to hide it or pretend they weren’t.
Yeah, people probably wouldn’t like microphones everywhere. Unless you just call it a security camera, and then we don’t notice them.
Why invent a novel dynamic noise cancelation algorithm and robot platform when plastic dome technology is so well understood?
People are cheap and lazy, and even when they’re being shitty they’re not going to do more than they have to, or overly complicate things.