When using Google Assistant, most of us don’t even think of whom the sound came from – after all, it was artificial intelligence, not a real person. Our virtual assistant, both Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant, always on Beck and our calls, but we (mostly) remain aware of the fact that they are only lines of code and complicated algorithms. But how do you feel if you know that Google Assistant has a very human backstory?
In an interview with Atlantic, James Giangola, the main conversation and persona designers on Google, talked about assistants with long. When the team departed to make his AI-based assistant, they knew that the line between the features was cold and futuristic and a little creepy if the sound bots were extraordinary, very thin. Google Assistant has never been intended to look human – which will only interfere – but he is meant to be enough human to make us feel comfortable. To achieve a feeling of difficulty understood from rather reserved comfort, Giangola and his team tried hard to perfect the assistant.
You would think that only hiring skilled voice actors was enough, but there were more to consider than just finding fun sounds. James Giangola departs with a search to make the Google assistant sound normal and hide the feeling of aliens talking to the robot. To do this, it makes a long backstory for the assistant.
When looking for the right sound actress and then training it later, the Atlantic noted that James Giangola came with a very specific backstory for AI. He did it because he wanted Google Assistant to appear real, and to provide a different personality, he gave a long background actress on the assistant. First and foremost, assistant comes from Colorado, who gave him a neutral accent.
He comes from a family read well and is the youngest daughter of a professor of physics (who has B.A. In the history of art from Northwestern University, no less) and a research librarian. He once worked for a “very popular night satire TV pundit” as a personal assistant. He is always a smart child, he won $ 100,000 in the edition of the children “Jeopardy.” Oh, and he also likes kayak. Don’t forget: he’s not real.
The need to create such specific backstory may seem questionable, and it was actually questioned by James Giangola’s colleague. However, Giangola was able to prove the meaning during the audition process. When a colleague asks him how there might be something that sounds like them in it, Giangola breaks away: “Candidates who have just given auditions – Do you think he sounds energetic, like him to be sirlied?” And he doesn’t, the one to Giangola means he’s not the right voice.
In addition to nailing the right tone of his voice, which is described by the Atlantic as “optimistic geekiness,” the assistant must be trained to hear humans not only with sound, but also with speech and rhythm. In an interview, James Giangola talked about several different small changes made to bring assistants from robots to almost natural.
To illustrate the example, Giangola plays recording where AI must conflict with users who want to order something on June 31. It must be done in a subtle and natural way that still provides the information needed. When prompted, the assistant answered: “Actually, June only has 30 days,” reaching the level of Vocal Realism Giangola is looking for.
Although complicated backstory assistants may seem excessive, it seems to have helped Google find the right sound actress. According to Tech Bezeer, the main voice assistant is Antonia Flynn, which was thrown back in 2016. However, Google is not too advanced with information about whom the sound of each assistant version is, so this needs to be taken with grains. salt. Information comes from reddit,
