AI

The Voice of Tomorrow: An Interview With Dr. Ahmed Bouzid – Part 2

January 12, 2022 by Jodi Krangle

“As human beings, we like to praise others that we believe are doing a great job. The thing is to make the ask easy to answer. So if you say ‘can you record a one-minute video,’ they would do it – I’m sure they would all do it – but it would be heavier. The lighting has to be good, you cannot have a bad hair day, and so on, whereas in voice you just need to make sure that your voice is okay.” — Dr. Ahmed Bouzid

In this episode, we continue my interview with Dr. Ahmed Bouzid, renowned speech technologist and Witlingo founder and CEO, as we talk about the Open Voice Network and the future of audio social media.

As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, just visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.

Speaking Your Knowledge

We begin the second half of the interview by talking about how Witlingo and internet audio can help democratize creativity, allowing people who might shy away from posting videos and pursuing more restrictive forms of audio expression to nonetheless find their voice in online audio communities. As Dr. Bouzid puts it, “there are lots and lots of people who have lots and lots of knowledge, and the best way for them to share that knowledge is just to speak it.”

The Social Audio Thing

Our discussion focuses on social audio apps as well at the nonprofit Open Voice Network, the ethics of voice AI and social audio, and the power of major companies like Twitter and Facebook to shape the industry. “This social audio thing, I don’t think we understand it really that much right now. I think we have the basics of it, but I think where it’s going to go and what it’s going to be in a year or two, five years, I don’t think we really know right now.”

Finding Your Voice Online

“I think there should be mechanisms,” Dr. Bouzid says as we talk about the future of social audio. “It cannot be left to these private companies to dictate things that have massive consequences.” He goes on to tell us about his work with Witlingo and the versatility it’ll give users, allowing fans and creators to share content and feedback, and the interview wraps up on a lighter note as we discover a somewhat surprising hobby that we happen to have in common.

Episode Summary

Witlingo and the ease of social audio
The ethics and dangers of voice AI
The challenge of an open audio future
How Witlingo can bring users together

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand. You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Connect with Dr. Ahmed Bouzid

Witlingo: https://witlingo.com/

The Fish & the Bird: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ahmedbouzid_voicefirst-sonic-sonicmarketing-activity-6818992542961438721-2Dvl

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/didou/

Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedbouzid/

The Voice of Tomorrow: An Interview With Dr. Ahmed Bouzid – Part 1

January 5, 2022 by Jodi Krangle

“I would say that the core driver has always been trying to enable more folks to engage, more people to be able to express themselves. So when I go back and look at all the things in my life, that seems to be the theme.” — Dr. Ahmed Bouzid

This episode’s guest is the founder and CEO of Witlingo, a McLean, Virginia-based company that builds tools for publishing sonic experiences, from Alexa Skills, Google Actions, and Bixby Capsules to Microcasts and social audio products and solutions. Before Witlingo, he was the Head of Product at Amazon Alexa and the Vice President of Product at Genesys.

He holds twelve patents in Human Language Technology, is an Ambassador at The Open Voice Network, an Editor at The Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (SERRC), and was recognized as a “Speech Luminary” by Speech Technology Magazine, as well as among the Top 11 Speech Technologists by Voicebot.ai. His name is Dr. Ahmed Bouzid, and if you have any interest in the future of voice and technology, this will be an enlightening discussion.

Better Than Computers

Dr. Bouzid starts the interview by recalling his formative years in Casablanca, and his memories of waking up to the sounds of chickens on his family’s villa. He goes on to tell us about his work as a software engineer and how computers still have a long way to go to catch up with human language skills. “Language is a very fascinating problem to solve from the technological perspective,” he explains, “one of the hardest problems in artificial intelligence.”

Teaching a Machine Manners

We take a deeper look at the paradox of machine learning versus the human brain, how people have evolved around the use of language in a way that computers haven’t. “Some people say that we are wired for language,” he tells us, “that it’s something that we are born with.” Even something as seemingly simple as being polite can be almost impossible to program into a computer since it depends on so many cultural and social cues that we don’t usually think about.

The Fish and the Bird

Next, we talk about Witlingo and the challenges facing voice-first systems like Alexa and Siri. Dr. Bouzid explores one of those challenges with a story he calls the Fallacy of the Fish and the Bird that illustrates the temptation to judge a new product using the same metrics that we used for the older ones, even when they don’t make sense. As he put it, “the metrics of the fish don’t apply to the bird, and, also, there are a lot more fish than there are birds.”

Thinking Like a Bot

The first half of our interview focuses on the advantages and limitations of chatbots, the uncanny valley that an almost-human voice system can fall into, and his approach to making AI voices and voice-first interfaces more accessible. “I subscribe to the school of thought that says we should not try to have the bot emulate the human being,” Dr. Bouzid explains. “The conversation between a human being and a bot is different than a human being to a human being.”

Episode Summary

Dr. Bouzid’s early childhood in Morocco
Why humans are better at speech than computers
The challenges of teaching an AI language
Witlingo and the metrics of voice-first software
How we talk to and interact with voice AI

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Connect with Dr. Ahmed Bouzid

Witlingo: https://witlingo.com/

The Fish & the Bird: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ahmedbouzid_voicefirst-sonic-sonicmarketing-activity-6818992542961438721-2Dvl

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/didou/

Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedbouzid/

Interview with #VoiceFirst Influencer, Physician, Speaker, Author and Podcaster, Dr. Teri Fisher – Part 2

August 4, 2021 by Jodi Krangle

“The convenience and service AI Voice will afford is part of the power of this system.”

Dr. Teri Fisher

AI Vocal Biomarkers

“When you take a digital photograph, in addition to getting the image, there’s data that’s captured by the camera.” Teri compares the digital photograph information to the type of data you can get from hearing a voice. Besides the actual words, you can also clue into the mood, context, tone, and other elements that give vocal information to the receiver. You can quantify this information and break down components in vocal sounds.

“Putting these vocal samples into a computer, you can use artificial intelligence and machine learning with a computer to detect patterns in your voice.” Now the computer can detect emotion, changes in emotions, and other “metadata” when it hears someone speak.

How Sound Impacted Teri at an Early Age

When Teri was growing up, his mother studied music to become a music therapist. He and his three brothers started taking music lessons at the age of three. Between the different instruments played, they had a built-in family string quartet in their home. At a very young age, Teri started using his personal computer to make music using a MIDI interface. “I started to write pieces of simple music using computers and I can still remember those sounds, and it was amazing to me that I could write music and control the computer to play my music.”

Applications for AI Vocal Biomarkers

We may be able to predict a potential suicide, catching COVID-19, cognitive decline, mortality rate, and possibly physical diseases. To ensure you have accurate voice authentication you have to make sure the system is able to compensate for changes in a voice due to aging. Voice biomarkers can detect a number of health conditions. “They are now using voice to predict the risk of someone having COVID-19.”

Teri’s Prediction on the Future of AI Biomarkers

Dr. Fisher believes that, in the future, smart speakers will have the ability to ask you health questions based on the sound of your voice. The smart speaker could then use your answers to give an educated guess as to what illness you may have and send the appropriate test kit to your home. Your smart device could walk you through your test and could fill your prescription, delivering it to your home. “You could receive basic medical care in the comfort of your home through your voice.”

Personal Health Information and Data Privacy with AI Devices

Your smartphone most likely has the highest percentage of your personal information out of all the online places we use daily. But we aren’t willing to give up our phones. “The convenience and service AI Voice will afford is part of the power of this system.” When we have virtual meetings with doctors online, we are losing our privacy but patients participate because this way of meeting is convenient.

Flash Briefing on Amazon

Dr. Fisher created a new online course, Flash Briefing Formula, for those who are looking to get their feet wet in the realm of voice technology from a business perspective. To find flash briefings you can ask your Amazon Alexa to play a flash briefing on a topic. You can also ask Alexa to subscribe to a flash briefing that you’d like to listen to daily. In addition to the ability to listen to the briefings, content creators have a way to be searchable on Amazon.

AI Smart Speakers

According to the most recent statistics, smart speakers are the fastest adopted technology in history. People like the convenience of being able to ask questions and get an immediate answer from the speaker.

Make sure to listen in as Teri and I go into detail about the advantages AI will offer us in the future and why he believes that AI technology will quickly advance the healthcare industry.

Visit with Dr. Teri Fisher via his website, like Dr. Fisher on Facebook, and connect with Dr. Teri Fisher on LinkedIn. You can also chat with Teri by tweeting with him on Twitter and subscribe to Teri‘s feed on YouTube.

In the meantime…

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand. You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Interview with #VoiceFirst Influencer, Physician, Speaker, Author and Podcaster, Dr. Teri Fisher – Part 1

July 28, 2021 by Jodi Krangle

“The voice operating system is the way I work – I communicate through my voice.”

Dr. Teri Fisher

Dubbed as “The Voice Doctor”, Dr. Teri Fisher believes that voice technology is the next operating system and the future of computers and artificial intelligence. We talk about breaking down the complexities of this technology to its most basic parts. Listen in as we discuss navigating the world of voice.

What The Voice Den Event is All About

Dr. Fisher has put together an online event with the idea of creating something that can reproduce the experience people have at a conference outside of the formal sessions. At this event, you can chat with and get to know the speakers behind the conference. “We typically bring on five people in the voice space and invite participants on the show live to ask any question that is on their mind.”

With no structure or format, this is purely an opportunity to have fun, chat, and talk to people they may not have in their network circle. It’s now referred to as “The Happy Hour of Voice” The following hour, participants are invited to jump onto Clubhouse to continue the conversation.

Voice Den Topics of Discussion

“Voice Den is all about the voice industry” with Dr. Fisher’s conversation focused on voice AI. From Amazon Alexa to smart speakers and developers talking about creating interesting AI features, the conversation covers many different topics.

How Teri became Involved in Voice AI

Being a technology enthusiast ever since he was a child, Teri remembers building radio-controlled airplanes and cars. In addition, he’s been interested in music and audio, becoming a musician early on in life. “Over the last couple of years, these interests have melded together – technology, education, music and sound.” He became enthralled with the idea of blending them all together in the AI format and has launched resources to educate others about the future of voice technology.

At the age of 10, Teri’s parents purchased a new piece of technology – a personal computer. A Radio Shack computer running DOS was his first experience with a PC.

Voice AI Technological Applications

Today, because of computing power, the world of technology is very different. “Now for the first time, instead of us having to adapt to computers, computers are having to adapt to us.” Now you only need a microphone to interface with a computer. Dr. Fisher believes this new interface is going to change the way that brands will set up their experiences and how we will be able to use our voice in healthcare applications.

Five Reasons Why Voice is Compelling

Dr. Fisher has a five-letter acronym for his five reasons why voice is so compelling – VOICE. V stands for Voice. “With voice you truly can multitask.” O represents omnipresence, as voice is all around you. The letter I symbolizes the innate part of voice as using our voice is instinctual. C represents contextual and the idea that our voice contains many details about the content or topic we are speaking about. E stands for efficiency because when you use your voice, it’s a more efficient way to transmit knowledge and communicate.

Roaring with Your Voice

Teri decided to nickname voice AI and synthesized his new hashtag to be #VoiceIsMyOS He predicts that the next couple of years post-pandemic will see big growth, similar to the “roaring 20’s” of the past. “When you think about how you roar, you use your voice!”

Join me next week for Part II of my interview with Dr. Teri Fisher where we talk more about the future of Voice AI.

In the meantime…

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Jodi Krangle

The Voice of Tomorrow: An Interview With Dr. Ahmed Bouzid – Part 2

The Voice of Tomorrow: An Interview With Dr. Ahmed Bouzid – Part 1

Interview with #VoiceFirst Influencer, Physician, Speaker, Author and Podcaster, Dr. Teri Fisher – Part 2

Interview with #VoiceFirst Influencer, Physician, Speaker, Author and Podcaster, Dr. Teri Fisher – Part 1

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