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.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @10:17PM (3 children)
Notice how they plan on spying "without someone else's permission". That someone else is you, citizen.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday August 28 2019, @01:02AM
Even if that is correct, England isn't America. [wikipedia.org] You're already dealing with ubiquitous government-run CCTV.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:13AM
So now you can say "I'd like an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub before I switch back to me footer" and unlike a US product which won't have a Scooby it'll understand it?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 28 2019, @02:58PM
It sounds like the "without someone else's permission" part refers to being able to load it onto whatever hardware platform they want. Unlike Alexa and Siri being locked to their own platforms.
Yes, it has to listen to you all the time to work, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're recording everything.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by tedd on Tuesday August 27 2019, @10:56PM (2 children)
Trawlermen [imdb.com] subtitled most fishermen, and they were speaking English, so..
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:35PM
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday August 28 2019, @01:30AM
Wouldn't it be simpler if British people simply learn to speak English?
(ducks, hides under desk)
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:13PM (3 children)
If you can't chat up the blarmy, then nosh your nats rather than dither your scrumping, you chuffed blokes.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:44PM
They're outsourcing the programming to India because they speak English better than Brits but not as good as Americans.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Wednesday August 28 2019, @12:40AM
My impersonation of Doctor Who: (*cough, cough*, clears throat)
"RUN!"
Thank you.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:15AM
Hey, there's nowt wrong wi'out what mitherin clutterbucks don't barley grummit!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:17PM
Calling them "crap" is generous.
Why do you do it? Nostalgia for the empire? These clowns are as delusional as the neocons during the Iraq War II.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:46PM (3 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by Only_Mortal on Wednesday August 28 2019, @01:44PM
Much of it is harvested from Twatter...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @05:36PM (1 child)
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
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday August 28 2019, @01:07AM
Insults, Threats and Cockney Rhyming Slang [youtube.com]
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday August 28 2019, @01:55AM (5 children)
TYhat's not a big deal really. Now if they can get it to understand Scottish people...
I REALLY want to see the tests with Welsh. I haven't seen electronic devices explode like on Lost in Space in a long time.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday August 28 2019, @05:42AM
You get the device, and I'll speak into it for you!
On a less frivilous note, there's also this [bangor.ac.uk] solution available.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 28 2019, @02:53PM (3 children)
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?"
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:42AM (2 children)
!. 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)
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
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.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @03:20AM (2 children)
When is a voice assistant that understands & speaks Jive going to be invented?
How to steal an American city: Montes v. City of Yakima - https://www.aclu-wa.org/cases/montes-v-city-yakima-0 [aclu-wa.org]
Embezzlement & swindling at the state level: McCleary, et al. v. State of Washington - Supreme Court Case Number 84362-7: https://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial_courts/supremecourt/?fa=supremecourt.mccleary_education [wa.gov]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @03:31AM
Right after you stop posting those links like an autist.
(Score: 2) by Acabatag on Wednesday August 28 2019, @03:39AM
Years and years ago I had a jive filter. It was an MS-DOS program. You could pipe text through it and it would convert it into 'jive.' At the time, I was on a BBS that had the interesting feature that if you were the originator of a thread, you could delete the entire thread. One night, there was a long thread that many people had participated on that I was the originator of. I captured the entire thread, ran it through the jive filter, then deleted the original thread and reposted the 'jive' converted thread. I got into a LOT of trouble, but it was really worth it.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:21AM (1 child)
... you mean blokes like 'enry 'iggins? Or more like Liza Doolittle that talks regular-like?
(Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Wednesday August 28 2019, @05:39AM
The only choice is Kenneth Kendall [retro-kit.co.uk]
(Score: 2) by UncleSlacky on Wednesday August 28 2019, @11:12AM
"Auntie" might be a better wake word (unless that's what you call your aunt, I suppose).
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-23572,00.html [theguardian.com]
(Score: 2) by jb on Wednesday August 28 2019, @12:34PM
I'm generally against any type of spying device...
...but it occurs to me that it might be quite fun to buy four of these, one each with Welsh, Scots, Irish & Yorkshire accents, then set one up in each corner of the garage and try to get them to argue amongst themselves.
Worst case it should at least help to pollute the spy database; best case it might produce comedy gold!