Two scientists at Amazon used artificial intelligence to help them make Alexa Irish. The team trained Alexa on accents generated by text-to-speech models. This then helped them identify distinctive aspects of the Irish accent to train Irish Alexa. Using an already existing Alexa model that speaks in a British accent as a baseline, the data scientists trained it on the Irish accents provided by text-to-speech models as well as voice recordings, the Times reported. They later zeroed in and modified certain sounds — for example, emphasizing the "r" sounds in words much like an Irish person would — to create the voice that eventually accompanied Irish Alexa.

---

Persons: Alexa, Georgi Tinchev, Marius Cotescu, disentanglement, disentangle, Irish Alexa Organizations: Alexa Irish, Morning, The New York Times, Times Locations: Irish