Speech

All stories in Speech

• Orangutans can play the kazoo – here’s what this tells us about speech evolution

  A kazoo might seem a world away from the spoken word. But our ability to produce its buzzing, Donald Duck-like sound at will ...

  • The Conversation

• Google’s Parrotron AI helps people with speech impediments talk freely

  Google's AI division has developed new speech-to-text software for people with verbal impairments which reduces word error ...

  • Mix

• Babbel's update encourages users to chart their own language course

  Babbel, the popular language-learning app, is getting a makeover. Updated language lessons now put the spotlight on bite-sized ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• Microsoft Edge can now read aloud websites with human-like voices

  Microsoft's Edge browser has a neat feature you might not have been aware of: it can read websites out loud for you. Handy ...

  • Napier Lopez

• YouTube is failing the LGBTQ community by allowing Steven Crowder’s homophobic slurs

  Vox host Carlos Maza tweeted a thread exposing the times where Steven Crowder made homophobic and racist comments — the ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Report: Female-sounding voice assistants fuel gender bias

  AI-powered voice assistants from Google, Amazon, Apple, and others could be perpetuating harmful gender biases, according ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Emotionally intelligent AI will respond to how you feel

  Artificial intelligence offers us an opportunity to amplify service and the integration of technology in everyday lives many ...

  • Alex Potamianos

• Face-to-face interactions shouldn't be replaced by digital communication

  What with Facetime, Skype, Whatsapp and Snapchat, for many people, face-to-face conversation is used less and less often. These ...

  • The Conversation

• AI can be trusted to take our 911 calls

  Your first reaction is probably no, but you should reconsider, and here’s why. 911 call centers are overwhelmed and have ...

  • Nathaniel Gates

• Facebook's global content moderation fails to account for regional sensibilities

  Over the past year, Facebook’s biggest challenge has been moderating billions of posts every day in more than a hundred ...

  • Cara Curtis

• IBM teaches AI to debate humans by crowdsourcing arguments

  IBM's AI wants to take on all-comers in debates on every topic. But, first, its going to crowdsource its arguments from humans ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Don’t overestimate AI’s understanding of human language

  This article is part of Demystifying AI, a series of posts that (try to) disambiguate the jargon and myths surrounding AI. It’s ...

  • Ben Dickson

• How you can teach AI to speak Welsh (and other minority languages)

  Pioneering smart home technologies and voice assistants don’t, as a rule, speak Welsh – although the Welsh government ...

  • The Conversation

• 5 lovely predictions on how Alexa will change our behavior

  Happy birthday Alexa! Four years after her birth as a new kind of house servant, let’s blow out the candles, take a ...

  • Owen Dowling