Amazon has created multiple amazing tech advancements over the years. But this might be the most wholesome and caring setting so far. They revealed that they are developing an upgrade to their Alexa system that would enable the technology to imitate any voice. Including that of a departed family member.
According to Rohit Prasad, a senior vice president at Amazon, the improved technology would gather enough speech data from less than a minute of audio to enable customization like this. As opposed to requiring someone to spend hours in a recording studio as it has in the past. When this functionality could go live was not specified by Prasad. Regarding a timetable, Amazon did not announce an official date.
Amazon came up with the idea after considering fresh approaches to give artificial intelligence more “human-like traits,” particularly “in these times of the global epidemic, when so many of us have lost someone we love,” according to Prasad. “AI can surely help their memories linger, even though it can’t take away the agony of loss.”
There is a particular fear that this new setting will also be used for the worst. This is because researchers debate that it might be used in “deep fakes”. Which translates to audio or video that uses AI to make it look as though something was said or done that was never actually spoken or done. These “deep fakes” are usually used against a person of power in order to fake a statement they have said to stir controversy.
Professor of computer science at Arizona State University Subbarao Kambhampati expressed his anticipation that the public will become more aware of the usage of artificial voices in daily life as a result of Amazon demonstrating the voice-replicating technology.
According to Kambhampati, the Alexa capability has the potential to help a grieving family member, but it must be evaluated against the numerous ethical dilemmas the technology raises.
