Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

The BBC is Planning to Launch a Voice Assistant Capable of Understanding British People

posted by chromas on Tuesday August 27 2019, @10:12PM   Printer-friendly

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.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The BBC is Planning to Launch a Voice Assistant Capable of Understanding British People | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 30 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:46PM (3 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:46PM (#886491) Journal
    Does the BBC even look at their own news?
    --
    SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   4  

  • (Score: 1) by Only_Mortal on Wednesday August 28 2019, @01:44PM

    by Only_Mortal (7122) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @01:44PM (#886777)

    Much of it is harvested from Twatter...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @05:36PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @05:36PM (#886901)

    Okay. If you don't trust the BBC, what news sources do you trust? As in specific organizations, not generic "not main stream media" cop-out.

    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:25AM

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:25AM (#887094) Journal
      The Guardian and CBC News and Markerplace, TVA Nouvelles and Radio-Canada Nouvelles and Journal Enquete. David Suzuki's The Nature of Things
      --
      SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.