AI ‘accent masking’ at overseas call centres sparks union backlash in Canada

Comments

• snoons@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Yoo what. AI’s going to give everyone white voice?

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  • dance_ninja@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Sorry to Bother You getting too close to reality

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    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      The venn diagram between surveillance capitalism and organised crime will continue to join until they are a circle.

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• AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  In the past, call centre workers in India and other low-wage countries would first go though courses teaching them how to pass for someone from the country they were specialising in, where they’d choose a name and persona, learn the accent/dialect and some basics that locals would be expected to know: if they, say, were doing Australia, they may end up watching some episodes of Neighbours, choosing a name like Shane or Kylie, and picking a footy team they support; if England, it’d be Eastenders, Premier League and something like Gareth or Nicky. They’d presumably do this at their own expense, though perhaps the call centre company might forward them the money and get it back from their pay.

  Getting AI to make them sound like they’re from Bondi or Essex is probably more cost effective.

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  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I used to work at a call center for US-Americans in the US, where I was born. The number of times people responded with something like “lol no it’s not,” when I told them my name was infuriating. People used to ask me the weather or about my state history as a test, and I had a guy once call me padme the whole time, I think because he confused India and Naboo.

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    • jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      But you understand why that happened, right?

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• Whitebrow@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  The issue is offshoring of jobs.

  If you put a disclaimer that “you’ll be speaking with Rajiv in Ontario and AI will be used to lighten accent for clearer communication” I don’t have a problem with that.

  But flip that into a “you’ll be speaking with Bob in Nicaragua and AI will be used to lighten accent for clearer communication” and the sentiment suddenly shifts.

  Canadian companies should support local labour and create local jobs.

  Clear communication is kinda important, but competency is importanter and Canadian jobs are importantest.

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• x00z@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  “hello mister” -> “ayy cunt”

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  • altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Oprima el 2 para español…para español Mexicano, oprima el pinche tres hijo de su re-puta madre pues que la chingada carnal, estese agusado caray…for English press one.

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• hobovision@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I thought we were supposed to just be able to talk to the AI directly… Are things not going so well with turning word guessers into general intelligence brains?

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