Amazon is developing features that will allow its Alexa voice assistant to mimic any human voice after listening to someone speak for less than a minute. Despite denying the feature’s potential creepiness, some are concerned about the prospect of abuse.
Rohit Prasad, who is in charge of the Alexa team at Amazon, said the project’s goal is to “make the memories last” because “so many of us have lost someone we love” as a result of the epidemic.
It is not necessary for the source to be present or even alive because Alexa may be trained to imitate a voice using previously recorded sounds. In a video clip that was shown this week at a conference, a young child asked Alexa if grandma could finish reading The Wizard of Oz. Alexa shifts voices as planned to imitate the child’s grandma and wrap up the tale.
Amazon has received over billions of questions daily in 17 different languages from Alexa
Prasad said during the presentation that billions of questions in 17 different languages are being received each week by hundreds of millions of Alexa-enabled devices in more than 70 different nations.
The likelihood of abuse appears to be high. For example, the tool might be used to create credible deepfakes for political propaganda or misinformation operations. Scammers took advantage of the capabilities when they tricked a bank manager into transferring $35 million to fund an acquisition that wouldn’t exist until 2020.
Also Read:
India outputs a Record GDP Growth of 8.7% which is the Highest in 22 Years
