Jodi Krangle

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artificial intelligence

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/

Filed Under: Voice Technology Tagged With: Ahmed Bouzid, AI, Alexa Skills, artificial intelligence, clubhouse, Fish and the Bird, Five Fallacies of Voice-first, Genesys, Google Actions, machine learning, Open Voice Network, OVON, Twitter Spaces, Voice By Design, Voice Plus, Voice-first, Witlingo

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.

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.

 

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.

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/

Filed Under: Voice Technology Tagged With: Ahmed Bouzid, AI, Alexa Skills, artificial intelligence, Fish and the Bird, Five Fallacies, Genesys, Google Actions, machine learning, Voice By Design, Voice Plus, Voice-first, Witlingo

Being More Human: An Interview With Graham Brown – Part 2

December 15, 2021 by Jodi Krangle

“All this machine learning is dehumanizing a lot of our interactions, and I say that as an AI graduate, very passionate about AI. Machine learning, pandemic data is very much dehumanizing a lot of what we do, everything from the chatbot to the less personal interaction with people.” — Graham Brown

This week my interview with Graham Brown continues as we discuss machine learning, podcasting, and finding your ideal listener.

Artificial Voices

The second part of our interview begins with a deeper discussion of machine learning, advances like the OpenAI project and Google’s MUM library, and the impact that it’s having on everything from content writing to the voiceover industry. How will this affect artists and content creators? Can a machine ever really capture the human experience? “You can mimic a voice,” Graham says, “but you can’t mimic a conversation. That’s the difference.”

Your Ideal Listener

Next, we delve into the reasons for podcasting, whether it’s just artistic expression, connecting with an audience, or promoting a brand. Graham tells us about the value of

figuring out your ideal listener, the person you’re really speaking to. “That’s the difference,”

he explains, “between doing a podcast and talking to someone and projecting your voice into the ether,” as he considers whether podcasting might become as widespread as resumes.

The Human Touch

We wrap up the episode with a look into the future of social audio in the era of Zoom meetings and remote work, and how audio balances the demands of professional efficiency with the need for an authentic human touch. “Storytelling should always be about re-framing narratives,” he tells us, “and if you think storytelling can be positive and negative, you can change the way people see things, events, history, other people, in a positive way.”

Episode Summary

  • Machine learning and the future of human audio
  • Figuring out your ideal podcast listener
  • The future of podcasting and social audio media
  • Graham’s latest projects and how to learn more

Connect with the Guest

Pikkal Website: https://www.pikkal.com/
Graham Brown’s Website: https://www.grahamdbrown.com/
Connect with Graham Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamdbrown/
Free Download – Learn How to Create a Successful Podcast for your Brand: https://www.podcastingforbrands.com/

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.

Filed Under: Podcasting Tagged With: artificial intelligence, asiatech, be more human, communication, GPT3, graham brown, machine learning, MUM, OpenAI, pikkal, podcast accelerator, podcast maps, podcasting, the story of india, thought leadership

Singing Blobs and Electric Melodies

July 7, 2021 by Jodi Krangle

Machine learning has helped shape just about every aspect of our digital lives, whether it’s deciding which Netflix show or YouTube video to recommend to us or even teaching cars to drive themselves. One of the most innovative uses for machine learning, however, is in creating music. Just recently Google released Blob Opera, a machine learning tool by David Li that “pays tribute to and explores the original musical instrument: the voice.” There’s a link below for you to try it out for yourself: all you have to do is direct each of the singing blobs by sliding its range up and down with your mouse, and listen as they compose their own harmonies.

https://experiments.withgoogle.com/blob-opera

This sort of musical collaboration between humans and computers has been evolving for a surprisingly long time. There’s some debate on just when the first electronic music was created, but the oldest recording comes from 1951. It’s a sample of three songs created by Alan Turing’s Ferranti Mark 1 computer, which filled up a whole room; the melodies were programmed by Christopher Strachey, a computer scientist who also drew upon his experience as a piano player to teach the computer how to play music. This early melding of art and science would pave the way for similar fusions of musical and scientific genius over the years.

Want to hear the Ferranti’s groundbreaking music for yourself? Just check out the link below for a digitally restored recording of that historic moment, and what the people listening had to say:

https://soundcloud.com/guardianaustralia/first-ever-recording-of-computer-music

Of course, synthetic music’s come a long way over the past seventy years. Now, thanks to machine learning and the development of artificial neural networks, computers can compose their own songs with hardly any human guidance at all. Here’s a link to “Mister Shadow,” a song entirely composed and performed by Sony Computer Science Lab’s “Flow Machines” AI system:

They can even mimic human voices, using deep learning paired with existing recordings to study and then duplicate a particular kind of voice. In 2019 Yamaha used its new VOCALOID:AI vocal software to recreate the voice of legendary singer Hibari Misora on the 30th anniversary of her passing. There’s a link to the song below, and I think you’ll agree that the result are uncanny:

But how did we come all the way from a computer beeping the national anthem to writing and singing its own songs? What does machine learning really mean, and what does it mean for the future of the audio industry? The answer lies in patterns, and a computer’s ability to recognize patterns and then generate new ones.

Computers don’t really know what music means, or even that they’re making music. But by studying thousands and thousands of different songs, machine learning allows them to create a profile of all the different elements that those songs have in common, much the same way that facial recognition programs use thousands of pictures of people’s faces to teach them what to look for.

Then the computer takes everything it’s learned about those songs and tries to create something new that fits the same profile. The first try probably won’t be very good, but computers work fast, and each failure gives them more to learn from for their next try. With enough samples and enough feedback, the results start to sound less like noise and more like real music, even real singing.

For Google’s Blob Opera experiment, David Li recorded 16 hours of audio from six different opera singers and used it to teach the program how to sing opera. What we hear when we play it, however, doesn’t come from any of those singers, but from the program’s own attempt to create music based on what it’s learned.

Machine learning’s already starting to make a big impact on the audio industry. Amper, an online composition tool, offers computer generated music based on user settings like genre and tempo as a substitute for stock music. Another app, Endel, creates personalized soundscapes that take into account factors like the time of day, weather and even the user’s vital signs, in addition to the program’s own unique compositions. Content creators in particular need more music than ever before, and machine learning is helping to meet that growing demand and broaden the market for original music.

The next time you hear a piece of music in a commercial or streaming content, you may want to give it a closer listen. With more and more audio content now being produced through machine learning, you might just find a singing blob behind the microphone.

Would you consider giving this podcast an honest review? You can do that here: https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding.  And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – Top 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

Filed Under: Research & Technology, Technology Tagged With: Alan Turing, Amper, artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks, blob opera, calm vocal, Christopher Strachey, computer generated music, David Li, Endel, Ferranti, Flow Machines, machine learning, music composition, vocal ai

Interview With Global Brand Strategist, Edward Farley – Part 2

May 6, 2020 by Jodi Krangle

Here’s the second part of my interview with global brand strategist, Edward Farley. In it, we continued our conversation about the research going into artificial intelligence and how AI affects the brand experience.

In addition, we discussed: 

  • How KFC in Canada and the National Australia Bank are creating two unique brand voices using the same type of deep learning technology that powers the voice of Alexa
  • How Mastercard uses a consistent track of chords that reflects the DNA of their brand but caters it to the culture in which their audio is being utilized 
  • The connection between audio and memory
  • The importance of a brand matching its visual identity to its audio identity
  • How brands use audio to build trust
  • How audio is more than just a tool in a toolkit—it’s a tool to be invested in
  • Jingles, NBC, and other audio branding that goes back many, many years
  • What is included in a brand’s soundscape
  • How Starbucks and others use audio to facilitate loyalty and improve how their customers feel
  • Things to consider when choosing music to play at events in different countries
  • The tactics businesses use to bring their audio strategy to life and the difference those tactics make in consumer experience
  • Ed’s work with a product incubator accelerator that is engaged in startup products in the clean technology space

You can find out more about Ed by connecting with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-farley-a08a839/ .

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE Audio Branding Worksheet?

Filed Under: Audio Branding, Marketing Tagged With: artificial intelligence, audio identity, audio strategy, brand DNA, brand voice, consumer experience, visual identity

Interview with Global Brand Strategist, Edward Farley – Part 1

April 29, 2020 by Jodi Krangle

Edward Farley has quite a history in marketing with over 25 years of experience in global marketing, brand management, creative development, and sports and entertainment marketing. He has degrees from Michigan State, Harvard Business School, and Northwestern University and has lectured on global brand management and marketing at multiple universities. Currently, Ed is working on business development for a few different agencies and is working with a product incubator accelerator that is engaged in new products in the clean technology space.

In the first part of my conversation with Ed, we discussed how he became interested in branding and marketing, as well as: 

  • How marketing today is much different than it used to be
  • How technology and the consumer experience have evolved
  • Ed’s work with a variety of industries, including beer companies, healthcare insurance, nonprofits, and financial services
  • How principles of developing a great brand strategy are fairly universal across industries
  • How Intel became one of the earliest audio branding success stories 
  • How audio branding serves as a way to drive recognition and trust
  • Ed’s work helping Humana with a complete brand repositioning
  • The importance of tone of voice and personality coming through a company’s music/audible experience
  • How companies can use audio to become more approachable, friendly, and helpful—or however they want their consumers to perceive them to be
  • Bringing an emotional vibe to a brand
  • How an Arby’s commercial can leave you feeling satisfied (even before eating their food!)
  • What exactly Ed means when he talks about a brand’s DNA
  • The best time for a company to think about audio in their marketing strategy
  • The architecture of a brand strategy and how it applies across a variety of consumers
  • How Alexa, artificial intelligence, and Amazon Polly are revolutionizing the brand experience

If you’d like to learn more about Ed and his work, the best place to connect with him is on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-farley-a08a839/ .

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE Audio Branding Worksheet?

Filed Under: Audio Branding, Marketing Tagged With: advertising, artificial intelligence, audio branding, brand DNA, brand strategy, marketing, technology

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