This Free App Pays You to Record Your Calls for AI Training, and It's a Hit

A new app that promises to pay people for their mobile phone call records, which is then used to train AI models, is getting so popular it's entered Apple's list of top-ranked free apps.

As of Thursday, Neon was the fourth most popular iOS free app, ahead of Google, Temu and TikTok. It had earlier been as high as the No. 2 spot.

Neon is available on iOS and on Android and the idea is that the company records the outgoing phone calls of users and pays them up to $30 a day for regular calls or 30 cents a minute if the call is to another Neon user. Calls to non-Neon users pay 15 cents a minute. The app also offers $30 for referrals. 

"You can cash out as soon as you earn your first ten cents," a Neon app FAQ says, "Once ...