She was passionate — and relentless — about making the city she loved navigable for everyone. Edith Prentiss, a fierce and fiery advocate for the disabled who fought to make the city she loved more navigable for everyone, died on March 16 at her home in the Washington Heights neighborhood …
Read More »Amazon launches Alexa Custom Assistant to let brands build their own voice assistants
Amazon today launched Alexa Custom Assistant, a product that allows automakers and device manufacturers to create intelligent assistants built on the AI technologies powering Alexa. It marks the first time Amazon is granting third parties access to Alexa’s framework, and the company says it will enable brands to create assistants …
Read More »The Last of Us Part II voice actor breaks new ground with Twitch’s Artificial
GamesBeat Summit Watch every session from the annual event On Demand Watch Now Millions of people who played The Last of Us Part II saw strong Asian-American male character in Jesse, with voice-acting from Stephen Chang. Jesse is a badass scout and zombie slayer who accompanies the main character, Ellie, …
Read More »Alexa users can now buy gas with a voice command at some stations
Automation and Jobs Read our latest special issue. Open Now In partnership with ExxonMobil and fintech provider Fiserv, Amazon today launched an Alexa feature that lets users pay for gas using a voice command. The integration was first announced in January at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, but today marks …
Read More »Starfinder is an interactive Alexa voice game starring Laura Bailey
GamesBeat Summit Watch every session from the annual event On Demand Watch Now Amazon is launching Starfinder, an interactive Alexa game featuring the voice actors Laura Bailey (of The Last of Us Part II) and Nathan Fillion. It’s a new way to entertain yourself in today’s stay-at-home culture. The first three …
Read More »Oculus Quest adds beta test for voice commands in U.S. English
Oculus Quest’s latest system software makes voice commands available as a beta feature to United States-based English speakers. Version 18 of the Oculus Quest software is beginning to roll out this week, and if you have the redesigned universal menu on your Quest, you can find it in “Settings > …
Read More »Microsoft brings new voice styles to Azure Cognitive Services
Microsoft today announced the launch of new neural text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities in Azure Cognitive Services, its suite of AI-imbued APIs and SDKs, that enable developers to tailor the voice of their apps and services to fit their brand. Each of three new styles — newscast, customer service, and digital assistant …
Read More »Algorithmic Justice League protests bias voice AI and media coverage
A group of six influential women studying algorithmic bias, AI, and technology, released a spoken word piece titled “Voicing Erasure” to highlight racial bias in the speech recognition systems made by tech giants. Creators also made Voicing Erasure to recognize the exclusion and overlooked contributions of women scholars and researchers. …
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