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

LAS VEGAS — A shorter movie of a kid inquiring Alexa to have his grandma go through the Wizard of Oz is creating far more than its share of buzz soon after Amazon described that the voice was actually a simulation.

To make it take place, Amazon “had to learn to deliver a substantial-excellent voice with fewer than a moment of recording as opposed to hours of recording in a studio,” said Rohit Prasad, Alexa AI senior vice president and head scientist, in the course of a keynote tackle Wednesday morning at the company’s re:MARS meeting in Las Vegas.

Amazon isn’t saying when the ability could be launched as an Alexa element, or what kinds of safeguards could possibly accompany a rollout. AI-generated synthesized voices have raised problems about the potential for abuse, potentially currently being misused to trick people today into thinking other folks experienced claimed a thing they hadn’t.

A set of “Responsible AI” rules released this 7 days by Microsoft outlines a collection of safeguards from prospective misuse of synthetic voices.

Prasad hinted at the underlying technological approach utilised by Amazon for the functionality, declaring that the crucial was “framing the trouble as a voice-conversion job, and not a speech-era task.”

Introducing the demo, he described the technologies as a way to maintain the reminiscences of cherished ones, declaring it is component of a increasing recognition of the role that Alexa can provide as a companion.

“In this companionship part, human attributes of empathy and have an impact on are key for building have confidence in,” he explained. “These attributes have develop into even far more vital in these situations of the ongoing pandemic, when so several of us have dropped another person we really like. What AI just cannot remove that pain of loss, it can definitely make their recollections previous.”

Prasad called it “one of the new capabilities we’re doing work on, which enables lasting personalized relationships.”