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takyon writes:

BBC to launch digital voice assistant

The BBC is planning to launch a digital voice assistant next year, the corporation has announced. It will not be a hardware device in its own right but is being designed to work on all smart speakers, TVs and mobiles.

The plan is to activate it with the wake-word Beeb, although this is "a working title", a spokesman said. BBC staff around the UK are being invited to record their voices to help train the programme to recognise different accents.

[...] [The BBC] said that that having its own assistant would enable it to "experiment with new programmes, features and experiences without someone else's permission to build it in a certain way". "Much like we did with BBC iPlayer, we want to make sure everyone can benefit from this new technology, and bring people exciting new content, programmes and services - in a trusted, easy-to-use way," said a spokesman. "This marks another step in ensuring public service values can be protected in a voice-enabled future."

Do Brits understand Brits?

Also at TechCrunch, The Verge, 9to5Google, Engadget.

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