One day, Amazon Alexa could be able to talk to you in the voices of departed loved ones.
At Amazon’s re:MARS conference on Wednesday, the new function was described as a method to “make memories last.” Alexa would be able to mimic a person’s voice while speaking after less than a minute of listening to that person’s speech. According to Sky News, a child in a video of the feature asked Alexa to read them a tale, and she agreed before altering her voice.
It’s unclear how far along the functionality is in development or when Alexa voice assistants could start receiving it. We might not see this functionality any time soon because the re:MARS (for machine learning, automation, robots, and space) event highlights what Amazon is doing in ambient computing, including developments in Alexa.
The capacity to replicate a vocal pattern precisely raises security issues as well, but we’ll reserve judgment until we know how well Alexa can imitate a voice after just hearing it briefly. We’ll also watch how the function is received. Although it appears to require user consent, there is a moral quandary around the rights of the deceased’s voice and how long it may be stored on personal devices or business servers.
An Amazon spokeswoman told CNET that the voice-imitating tool isn’t specifically designed for family members who have passed away. Based on recent developments in text-to-speech technology, as described in a recent Amazon white paper, the team has created high-quality voice with far less data by applying a voice filter rather than spending hours recording voice in a professional studio.