TechnologyAmazon's Alexa will be able to imitate the voices of your deceased loved ones

Amazon’s Alexa will be able to imitate the voices of your deceased loved ones

(CNN Business) — The latest version of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant might sound eerily familiar. The company announced Wednesday at its annual re:MARS conference, which focuses on innovation in artificial intelligence, that it is working on an update to its Alexa system that would allow the technology to mimic any voice, even that of a deceased relative.

In a video shown on stage, Amazon demonstrated how, instead of Alexa’s signature voice reading a story to a child, it was her grandmother’s voice.

Rohit Prasad, a senior vice president at Amazon, said the updated system will be able to collect enough voice data from less than a minute of audio to make personalization like this possible, rather than someone spending hours in a recording studio as is done in last. Prasad did not elaborate on when this feature might be released. Amazon declined to comment on a calendar.

The concept stems from Amazon’s search for new ways to add more “human attributes” to artificial intelligence, especially “in these times of an ongoing pandemic, when so many of us have lost someone we love,” Prasad said. “While AI can’t take away the pain of loss, it can definitely make your memories live on.”

Amazon has long used recognizable voices, such as the real voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Melissa McCarthy, and Shaquille O’Neal, to voice Alexa. But AI recreations of people’s voices have also gotten better and better in recent years, particularly with the use of AI and deepfake technology. For example, three lines in Anthony Bourdain’s documentary “Roadrunner” were generated by AI, even though they sounded like they were said by the celebrity chef and media personality. (This particular case caused a stir because it was not made clear in the film that the dialogue was generated by AI and had not been approved by the Bourdain estate.) “We may have a documentary ethics panel on it later,” director Morgan Neville told The New Yorker when the film was released last year.

Most recently, actor Val Kilmer, who has lost his voice due to throat cancer, has teamed up with startup Sonantic to create an AI-powered voice for him in the new movie “Top Gun: Maverick.” The company used audio footage of Kilmer to teach an algorithm how to speak like the actor, according to Variety.

Adam Wright, a senior analyst at IDC Research, said he sees value in Amazon’s effort.

“I think Amazon is interested in doing this because they have the capability and the technology, and they’re always looking for ways to elevate the smart home and smart assistant experience,” Wright said. “Whether it drives a deeper connection with Alexa, or just becomes a skill that some people dabble with from time to time, remains to be seen.”

Amazon’s foray into custom Alexa voices may have more trouble with the uncanny valley effect: recreating a voice that’s very similar to that of a loved one but isn’t quite right, leading to rejection by humans. real.

Alexa wants to be your new co-worker 0:47

“There are certainly some risks, such as the resulting AI voice and interactions not matching well with memories of that individual’s loved ones,” said Micheal Inouye of ABI Research. “Some will see this as creepy or completely terrible, but for others it could be seen in a deeper way, like the example given by allowing a child to hear the voice of his grandparents, maybe for the first time and in a way that’s not a strict recording of the past”.

He believes, however, that the diverse reactions to announcements like this speak to how society will have to adapt to the promise of innovations and their eventual reality in the coming years.

“We will definitely see more of these types of experiments and trials, and at least until we get a higher comfort level or these things become more common, there will still be a wide range of responses,” he said.

Source: CNN

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