Tech giant Amazon has released an insanely frightening experimental feature for its AI assistant Alexa that lets its users mimic the voices of deceased relatives.
The Verge reports that Amazon is introducing an experimental feature for its AI assistant, Alexa, that allows the device to mimic the voices of users’ deceased relatives. The company showcased this new feature at its annual MARS conference, showing off a video of a boy asking Alexa to read him a bedtime story in the voice of his deceased grandmother.
“As you can see from this experience, the child’s grandmother’s voice instead of Alexa’s voice reading a book,” said Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s Alexa AI Chief Scientist. Prasad posted a clip stating that adding human features to AI systems has become especially important “during the ongoing pandemic period when many of us have lost a loved one.”
Prasad added, “Although AI won’t be able to take away the pain of loss, it will certainly expand their memory.” Amazon didn’t specify whether the feature would be available to the public, but said its systems won’t learn to emulate someone’s voice with just one minute of recorded audio. Amazon devices are constantly listening to users, and voice memo recording is convenient, which may mean the average consumer can easily clone a family member’s voice.
Social media users quickly named this new feature, saying it was “creepy” and “incredible”. Breitbart News has previously reported on the growing popularity of “sound deep spoofs” that mimic users’ voices – often with their consent, not after they’re dead. Recently, one of these deep scams was used to recreate Val Kilmer’s voice for a new movie. Best Shooter: Maverick after the actor lost his voice due to complications from throat cancer.
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Source: Breitbart
