heroine It’s working out a way for users to talk to their family members through its Alexa voice assistant even after they’ve died.
in amazon Mars conference again On Wednesday, Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for the Alexa team in Las Vegas, explained a feature that allows voice assistants to replicate the voice of a specific person.
In a demonstration video, a child said, “Alexa, can Grandma finish reading The Wizard of Oz to me?”
Alexa confirmed the request with the default, robotic voice, then immediately changed to a softer, more human tone that appears to mimic a child’s family member.
The Alexa team has developed a model that allows its voice assistant to produce high-quality voice with “less than a minute of recorded audio,” Prasad said.
The facility is currently under development, Prasad said. Amazon didn’t say when the feature would roll out to the public.
While it can be used to repeat any sound, Prasad suggested that it could be used to help remember a deceased family member.
Making artificial intelligence conversational and companion-like has become a major focus, especially given that “many of us have lost someone we love”, Prasad said.
“While AI can’t eliminate that pain of loss, it can certainly make memories last,” he said.
The e-commerce giant wants to make conversations with Alexa in general more natural, and has rolled out a range of features that enable its voice assistant to replicate more human dialogue, even that to the extent of asking user questions,