THE world’s biggest call centre operator has been accused of using AI to “whiten” Indian accents for Brit customers.
Teleperformance is using real-time AI software on phone calls to “neutralise” Indian accents to reduce miscommunication.
The French company said the new AI tool means customer service calls are resolved more quickly, making call centre workers more productive.
Call centre workers are also reportedly less likely to be abused and customers are less likely to demand to speak to a supervisor.
Teleperformance’s Markus Schmitt said: “It’s a technology that allows [us] to neutralise accents in real time without any data storage.
“You have obviously the issue we talked about human connection, human empathy.
“We have first implemented Sanas with clients in India.
“And sometimes, there is a difficulty people in India talking and vice versa with clients from the US.”
Teleperformance has 90,000 employees in India and tens of thousands more in other countries.
It’s customers in the UK include parts of the government, NHS, Vodafone and eBay
The AI software is provided by an American company called Sanas.
Demos of Sanas’ technology show Indian accents acquiring a distinctively American twang, as well as reducing background noise.
Sanas has previously been criticised for making people’s voices “sound whiter”.
The technology is already being used by companies including Walmart and UPS.
And the company has plans to expand the use of the AI tool beyond India into other countries.
The creative industry is also concerned about the use of AI.
Artificial Intelligence explained
Here’s what you need to know
- Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is a type of computer software
- Typically, a computer will do what you tell it to do
- But artificial intelligence simulates the human mind, and can make its own deductions, inferences or decisions
- A simple computer might let you set an alarm to wake you up
- But an AI system might scan your emails, work out that you’ve got a meeting tomorrow, and then set an alarm and plan a journey for you
- AI tech is often “trained” – which means it observes something (potentially even a human) then learns about a task over time
- For instance, an AI system can be fed thousands of photos of human faces, then generate photos of human faces all on its own
- Some experts have raised concerns that humans will eventually lose control of super-intelligent AI
- But the tech world is still divided over whether or not AI tech will eventually kill us all in a Terminator-style apocalypse
AI-powered image generators are using art made by humans to help others create digital dupes, making it harder for creatives to make a living.
Photographer Tim Flach, who specialises in stark animal portraits against black backgrounds, is just one of many affected.
Speaking to The Sun, Flach said: “AI should support, not supply human creativity.”
The Shoreditch-based photographer first became aware of his work being fed to AI bots when an academic from the University of Arts London called him.
This is done through a process called scraping, which is where AI companies capture data from the internet, to train their AI.
The situation might deteriorate because the UK government is in the process of creating a law that would allow AI companies unrestricted access to any information they can legally access on the internet.
This means all copyright holders would have to actively “opt out” of having their work harvested by AI firms.
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