Amazon previews Alexa capability that synthesizes a person’s voice from less than a minute of audio – GeekWire

LAS VEGAS — A brief video of a baby inquiring Alexa to have his grandma go through the Wizard of Oz is making far more than its share of buzz immediately after Amazon defined that the voice was essentially a simulation.

To make it take place, Amazon “had to find out to make a substantial-high-quality voice with less than a minute of recording as opposed to hours of recording in a studio,” claimed Rohit Prasad, Alexa AI senior vice president and head scientist, through a keynote tackle Wednesday early morning at the company’s re:MARS convention in Las Vegas.

Amazon isn’t declaring when the capability could be introduced as an Alexa characteristic, or what kinds of safety measures may well accompany a rollout. AI-produced synthesized voices have raised worries about the possible for abuse, maybe remaining misused to trick people into considering others experienced reported a thing they hadn’t.

A set of “Responsible AI” ideas introduced this week by Microsoft outlines a sequence of safeguards towards possible misuse of artificial voices.

Prasad hinted at the underlying specialized approach made use of by Amazon for the capability, declaring that the essential was “framing the dilemma as a voice-conversion task, and not a speech-technology undertaking.”

Introducing the demo, he described the technologies as a way to protect the recollections of loved kinds, saying it’s section of a increasing recognition of the position that Alexa can serve as a companion.

“In this companionship role, human attributes of empathy and influence are key for constructing have confidence in,” he mentioned. “These characteristics have become even extra essential in these periods of the ongoing pandemic, when so numerous of us have shed anyone we really like. What AI cannot get rid of that soreness of reduction, it can surely make their recollections previous.”

Prasad identified as it “one of the new capabilities we’re working on, which allows lasting personalized associations.”