We’ve got Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant — so do we really need more synthesized voices to do our bidding?
Absolutely, say the founders of WellSaid Labs, a startup that’s being spun out from Seattle’s Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (also known as AI2).
“We’re just solving a different problem,” co-founder and chief technology officer Michael Petrochuk told GeekWire. “Alexa and Google Home are trying to solve the problem of clearly, slowly communicating — pronouncing everything the same way, in a monotone format so it could be understood by everyone.”
WellSaid, in contrast, is developing a stable of AI-powered voices customized for different context, and sounding so lifelike that you wouldn’t believe they’re robots. During a recent video demonstration for a roomful of AI aficionados, most folks guessed that the images were generated by an algorithm, but not the voices.
