bcla
On our rugged Eastern foothills.....
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2012
- Messages
- 25,715
Sanas uses algorithms to make voices sound whiter. The example on the company’s website removes a man’s noticeable Indian accent and turns it into something robotic and uncanny — and, yes, white.
Sarim says accents are a problem because “they cause bias.” Bias does not work this way, of course; it’s not the object of the bias that causes it to exist. Removing the object of that bias — an accent, in this case — doesn’t do anything to rid the world of that bias. It simply sweeps it aside in the name of peaceful conversation.
But you don’t even need to speak with Sarim directly to understand where Sanas’s mission veers off course. Here’s where it happens: right at the start. Sanas’s website says the software is “creating a more connected, friendly, and empathetic world by revolutionizing how we communicate.” Sanas is doing none of these things; it’s just masking your identity.
Not sure what to think of it. I really don't have an issue if it's a call center or even a recruiter who is in South Asia or the Philippines who sounds like it. I really don't like when they try something as facile as just trying to "sound American" or using a fake name. My big issue is that they don't exactly speak the same language, using a form of English that includes terms such as "revert me" (respond to me) or "email ID" (for email address), and no amount of accent modification software is going to fix that. Or will it?
I do remember receiving a call from someone in India about a job in the US. He didn't try to hide his name. His accent was clearly Indian without any attempt to hide it. There might have even been a bit of static from the VoIP line being half a world away. However, what he had practiced wasn't faking an accent but learning American English grammar. He acknowledged that he was based in India and had never been to the United States, but he sounded a lot like my colleagues from South Asia who had been in the United States for years. I thanked him for not trying to insult my intelligence by doing his homework and doing the things that mattered rather than the things that were superficial (i.e. trying to hide an accent that was still understandable).
Who comes up with this stuff and how old world is the thinking in play? Now the mysterious they that do the declaring of intent (who are apparently supposed to be above reproach) have decided to spin reality so that bigotry is the root of the enmity? It couldn't possibly be that people are generally PO'd that all the US jobs moved overseas leaving us with the 08 crash and hoards of homeless who don't have access to the low minimum wage jobs that were moved away for the slave labor in places without labor laws? Couldn't possibly be that these businesses intentionally put American's on the phone with International slave labor whose job it is to put consumers in pointless black holes for hours on end until we get mysteriously disconnected or hang up in annoyance. The accents aren't the problem and the people with accents aren't the problem, businesses practices are the problem.
