Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

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This discussion has been archived.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.
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: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 28 2019, @02:53PM (3 children)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @02:53PM (#886814)

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

    BBC staff around the UK

    If the summary is accurate, Scotland and Wales are both already included under "Britain" and "the UK."

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:42AM (2 children)

    by sjames (2882) on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:42AM (#887074) Journal

    !. It's a funny. 2. Don't tell the Scots [wikipedia.org] that! [buzzfeed.com]

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday August 29 2019, @03:23PM (1 child)

      by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday August 29 2019, @03:23PM (#887307)

      If you look on the right of that Wikipedia article, it has "Scottish English" as a subset of "British English", so yeah, it makes perfect sense.

      And after watching a lot of Late Late Show w/ Craig Ferguson I guess I don't find a Scottish accent that weird anymore ;-)

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday August 29 2019, @07:25PM

        by sjames (2882) on Thursday August 29 2019, @07:25PM (#887450) Journal

        Craig Ferguson has what would be considered a mild accent, probably because he intended to be in media and broadcasting. I find it to be perfectly clear and not at all odd myself.

        Also see item 1.