bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
51,004
Reputation
7,865
Daps
147,240

Introducing 7 new realistic AI voices optimized for conversations in 7 languages for public preview




By

Garfield Ha
Published Nov 03 2023 03:10 AM 7,937 Views



By Gang Wang, Xi Wang, Lihui Wang, Qinying Liao, Garfield He, Lei He, Binggong Ding, and Sheng Zhao

Now, in human-bot conversational interactions, AI can produce more natural, fluent, and high-quality responses than ever before, thanks to the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Azure OpenAI GPT. Consequently, when engaging in verbal conversations, the demand for naturalness and expressiveness in Text-to-Speech (TTS) voices is higher than ever. We are introducing these new voices specifically designed for conversational scenarios. Whether you are creating a speech-based chatbot, a voice assistant, or a conversational agent, these new voices will ensure your interactions are more realistic, lifelike, and engaging.

The new realistic conversational voices are perfect matches for any application necessitating lifelike speech interactions, including chatbots, voice assistants, gaming, e-learning, entertainment, and more.

Following the introduction of 3 English (United States) voices last month, we are introducing 7 more new voices for more locales on region East US/Southeast Asia/West Europe: French (Canada), French (France), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Korean (Korea), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain).

Examples of new voices

LocaleLanguage RegionGenderVoice nameScriptAudio
de-DEGerman (Germany)FemaleSeraphinaWenn Sie die Informationen nicht finden können, sollten Sie vielleicht die Versicherungsabteilung Ihres Bundesstaates kontaktieren. Sie könnten Ihnen helfen, Lebensversicherungspolicen zu finden, die Ihr Mann abgeschlossen hat. Ich hoffe, das hilft Ihnen. Lassen Sie es mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
es-ESSpanish (Spain)FemaleXimenaEntiendo. Parece ser un lugar impresionante y aterrador al mismo tiempo. Me pregunto qué tipo de té sirven allí. ¿Está hecho con los rayos del sol o con algo más? ¿Y quiénes son las personas que viven allí? ¿Son leales al Imperio o tienen sus propias agendas?
fr-CAFrench (Canada)MaleThierryJe comprends. Cela semble être un endroit à la fois impressionnant et terrifiant. Je me demande quel type de thé ils servent là-bas. Est-il fait avec les rayons du soleil ou avec autre chose ? Et qui sont les personnes qui y vivent ? Sont-elles loyales à l'Empire ou ont-elles leurs propres agendas ?
fr-FRFrench (France)FemaleVivienneOui, c'est ce que j'ai dit. Une stratégie maximin est celle qui maximise le paiement minimum d'un joueur, peu importe ce que font les autres joueurs. C'est une façon de garantir que le joueur obtienne au moins un certain montant de paiement, même dans le pire des cas.
it-ITItalian (Italy)MaleGiuseppeCapisco. Sembra essere un luogo impressionante e terrificante allo stesso tempo. Mi chiedo che tipo di tè servano lì. È fatto con i raggi del sole o con qualcos'altro? E chi sono le persone che ci vivono? Sono fedeli all'Impero o hanno le proprie agende?
ko-KRKorean (Korea)MaleHyunsu이해합니다. 인상적이고 동시에 무서운 곳인 것 같습니다. 그곳에서는 어떤 차를 파는지 궁금하네요. 태양 광선이나 다른 것으로 만들어진 것입니까? 그리고 그곳에 사는 사람들은 누구입니까? 그들은 제국에 충성합니까, 아니면 그들만의 계획을 가지고 있습니까?
pt-BRPortuguese (Brazil)FemaleThalitaSe você não conseguir encontrar as informações, talvez queira considerar entrar em contato com o departamento de seguros do seu estado. Eles podem ajudá-lo a localizar qualquer apólice de seguro de vida que tenha sido feita por seu marido. Espero que isso ajude. Por favor, me avise se tiver outras perguntas.


And also updated zh-CN Xiaoxiao voice with more natural speaking style:
Zh-CNMandarin Chinese (China)FemaleXiaoxiao当然可以,那我们来聊一聊音乐吧。音乐是一种无国界的艺术,可以跨越文化和语言的障碍触动人心。你有没有什么特别喜欢的歌手,乐队或者音乐风格呢?或者说你最近有没有听到什么新歌让你感觉到特别喜欢的? 嗯,虽然我没有情感和喜好,但是我知道很多的音乐和歌手。不同的歌手和风格呢,也代表了各种各样的文化和情感。

Additional Updates

Besides these new voices, we also updated 3 current voices with more expressive prosody.

LocaleLanguage RegionGenderVoice nameScriptCurrent versionNew Version
Es-ESSpanish (Spain)MaleAlvaroLa temperatura máxima de hoy será de 30 grados.
En-GBEnglish (United Kingdom)MaleRyanI took the evening to work more on my business and work on my personal goals.
Ko-KRKorean (Korea)MaleInjoon유기체론적 생각을 발전시켜 생물학에서의 시스템 이론을 개발하였다.

Integrate Azure TTS and Azure Open AI with low latency.


To minimize latency during the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) like Azure Open AI Service and Azure TTS, it is advised to send text to the TTS service while the LLM is still generating a response. You can find a demo sample here that demonstrates generating TTS responses in a streaming manner. Also, you can use best practice in this article to reduce latency in general. How to lower speech synthesis latency using Speech SDK - Azure AI services | Microsoft Learn

Get started.


Microsoft offers over 400 neural voices covering more than 140 languages and locales. With these Text-to-Speech voices, you can quickly add read-aloud functionality for a more accessible app design or give a voice to chatbots to provide a richer conversational experience to your users. In addition, with the Custom Neural Voice capability, you can easily create a brand voice for your business with professional voice clone.

For more information


3 Likes
Like
 

ChatGPT-5

Superstar
Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
17,652
Reputation
2,836
Daps
56,034
this is AI
JznV9tb.png


I tried to copy this and AI wasnt having any of that. Tried to use describe, nope. tried description, nope. tried Dalle, nope, midjourney nope, even chatgpt-4, nope.

how the fukk did they make this? I can't even use trick words, it knows what I'm trying to do
 

bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
51,004
Reputation
7,865
Daps
147,240
this is AI
JznV9tb.png


I tried to copy this and AI wasnt having any of that. Tried to use describe, nope. tried description, nope. tried Dalle, nope, midjourney nope, even chatgpt-4, nope.

how the fukk did they make this? I can't even use trick words, it knows what I'm trying to do

you got to use open source multimodal LLM's to discuss things of that nature.

this may be less censored.





 

bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
51,004
Reputation
7,865
Daps
147,240

 

bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
51,004
Reputation
7,865
Daps
147,240

BLAME GAME —

Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot​

Air Canada appears to have quietly killed its costly chatbot support.​

ASHLEY BELANGER - 2/16/2024, 12:12 PM

Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot

Enlarge
Alvin Man | iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus

262

After months of resisting, Air Canada was forced to give a partial refund to a grieving passenger who was misled by an airline chatbot inaccurately explaining the airline's bereavement travel policy.

On the day Jake Moffatt's grandmother died, Moffat immediately visited Air Canada's website to book a flight from Vancouver to Toronto. Unsure of how Air Canada's bereavement rates worked, Moffatt asked Air Canada's chatbot to explain.

The chatbot provided inaccurate information, encouraging Moffatt to book a flight immediately and then request a refund within 90 days. In reality, Air Canada's policy explicitly stated that the airline will not provide refunds for bereavement travel after the flight is booked. Moffatt dutifully attempted to follow the chatbot's advice and request a refund but was shocked that the request was rejected.

Moffatt tried for months to convince Air Canada that a refund was owed, sharing a screenshot from the chatbot that clearly claimed:


If you need to travel immediately or have already travelled and would like to submit your ticket for a reduced bereavement rate, kindly do so within 90 days of the date your ticket was issued by completing our Ticket Refund Application form.

Air Canada argued that because the chatbot response elsewhere linked to a page with the actual bereavement travel policy, Moffatt should have known bereavement rates could not be requested retroactively. Instead of a refund, the best Air Canada would do was to promise to update the chatbot and offer Moffatt a $200 coupon to use on a future flight.

Unhappy with this resolution, Moffatt refused the coupon and filed a small claims complaint in Canada's Civil Resolution Tribunal.

According to Air Canada, Moffatt never should have trusted the chatbot and the airline should not be liable for the chatbot's misleading information because Air Canada essentially argued that "the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions," a court order said.

Experts told the Vancouver Sun that Moffatt's case appeared to be the first time a Canadian company tried to argue that it wasn't liable for information provided by its chatbot.

Tribunal member Christopher Rivers, who decided the case in favor of Moffatt, called Air Canada's defense "remarkable."

"Air Canada argues it cannot be held liable for information provided by one of its agents, servants, or representatives—including a chatbot," Rivers wrote. "It does not explain why it believes that is the case" or "why the webpage titled 'Bereavement travel' was inherently more trustworthy than its chatbot."

Further, Rivers found that Moffatt had "no reason" to believe that one part of Air Canada's website would be accurate and another would not.

Air Canada "does not explain why customers should have to double-check information found in one part of its website on another part of its website," Rivers wrote.

In the end, Rivers ruled that Moffatt was entitled to a partial refund of $650.88 in Canadian dollars (CAD) off the original fare (about $482 USD), which was $1,640.36 CAD (about $1,216 USD), as well as additional damages to cover interest on the airfare and Moffatt's tribunal fees.

Air Canada told Ars it will comply with the ruling and considers the matter closed.



Air Canada’s chatbot appears to be disabled​

When Ars visited Air Canada's website on Friday, there appeared to be no chatbot support available, suggesting that Air Canada has disabled the chatbot.

Air Canada did not respond to Ars' request to confirm whether the chatbot is still part of the airline's online support offerings.

Last March, Air Canada's chief information officer Mel Crocker told the Globe and Mail that the airline had launched the chatbot as an AI "experiment."

Initially, the chatbot was used to lighten the load on Air Canada's call center when flights experienced unexpected delays or cancellations.

“So in the case of a snowstorm, if you have not been issued your new boarding pass yet and you just want to confirm if you have a seat available on another flight, that’s the sort of thing we can easily handle with AI,” Crocker told the Globe and Mail.

Over time, Crocker said, Air Canada hoped the chatbot would "gain the ability to resolve even more complex customer service issues," with the airline's ultimate goal to automate every service that did not require a "human touch."

If Air Canada can use "technology to solve something that can be automated, we will do that,” Crocker said.

Air Canada was seemingly so invested in experimenting with AI that Crocker told the Globe and Mail that "Air Canada’s initial investment in customer service AI technology was much higher than the cost of continuing to pay workers to handle simple queries." It was worth it, Crocker said, because "the airline believes investing in automation and machine learning technology will lower its expenses" and "fundamentally" create "a better customer experience."

It's now clear that for at least one person, the chatbot created a more frustrating customer experience.

Experts told the Vancouver Sun that Air Canada may have succeeded in avoiding liability in Moffatt's case if its chatbot had warned customers that the information that the chatbot provided may not be accurate.

Because Air Canada seemingly failed to take that step, Rivers ruled that "Air Canada did not take reasonable care to ensure its chatbot was accurate."

"It should be obvious to Air Canada that it is responsible for all the information on its website," Rivers wrote. "It makes no difference whether the information comes from a static page or a chatbot."
 

bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
51,004
Reputation
7,865
Daps
147,240


ChatGPT Data Analysis V2 apparently uses a new GPT-4 model called "gpt-4-ada-v2" (Advanced Data Analysis V2). It adds:

- a data grid overlay editor for uploaded files

- an option for a "targeted reply" by selecting specific columns, rows, or cells (which adds the prompt "The user has selected the columns," "The user has selected rows at the following indices," or "The user has selected a range at the iloc")

- and possibly interactive charts
 

bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
51,004
Reputation
7,865
Daps
147,240



This is our fastest gait ever at ~0.6 m/s, > 30% speed boost since our last video in December.

We’ve improved our vestibular system, our foot trajectory, and our ground contact logic. We’ve upgraded our motion planner, and made cuts to the loop latency across the bot. Optimus is more stable and more confident overall - even during turns. We also added a slight torso & arms sway.

If these challenges speak to you, join
@AnandSwa
& our amazing Controls team!

http://tesla.com/ai
 
Top