Your iPhone will soon be able to imitate your voice after 15 minutes of practice

Your iPhone will soon be able to imitate your voice after 15 minutes of practice

Apple on Tuesday announced a series of new accessibility tools for the iPhone and iPad, including a feature that promises to mimic a user’s voice for phone calls after just 15 minutes of training.

With an upcoming tool called Personal Voice, users will be able to read text prompts to record audio and have technology learn their voice. A related feature called Live Speech will then use a “synthesized voice” to read the user’s typed text aloud during phone calls, FaceTime conversations and in-person conversations. People will also be able to save commonly used phrases to use during live chats.

This feature is one of several aimed at making Apple devices more inclusive for people with cognitive, visual, hearing and mobility disabilities. Apple says people who may have a condition where they lose their voice over time, such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) can benefit from the device.

“Accessibility is part of everything we do at Apple,” said Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives, in a company blog post. “These groundbreaking features are designed with feedback from members of the disability community every step of the way, to support a diverse user group and help people connect in new ways.”

Apple says the feature will roll out later this year.

While these tools have the potential to meet genuine needs, they also come at a time when advances in artificial intelligence have raised alarms about bad actors using convincingly fake audio and videos – known as “deepfakes” – to deceive or misinform the public. .

In a blog post, Apple said the Personal Voice feature uses “on-device machine learning to keep user information private and secure.”

Other tech companies have experimented with using AI to mimic voices. Last year, Amazon said it was working on an update to its Alexa system that would allow the technology to mimic any voice, even that of a deceased family member. (This feature has not yet been released).

In addition to the voice feature, Apple announced Assistive Access, which combines some of the most popular iOS apps, such as FaceTime, Messages, Camera, Photos, Music and Phone, into a single Call app. The interface includes high-contrast buttons, large text labels, an option for an emoji-only keyboard, and the ability to record video messages for people who may prefer visual or audio communication.

Apple is also updating its Magnifier app for the visually impaired. It will now include a detection mode to help people better interact with physical objects. The update will allow someone, for example, to hold the iPhone’s camera in front of the microwave and move their finger across the keypad while the app labels and announces text on the microwave’s buttons.