Bias in speech recognition technology is well-documented across the tech industry. A recent study of Google’s automatically-generated captioning technology, for example, finds that the output was 13% more accurate for male speakers over female speakers.
The leading speech recognition scaleup Speechmatics and consumer AI startup Personal.ai are today announcing their partnership to offer individuals a personal AIs that empower them to never forget their conversations, spoken notes, reminders, details of what they said during a meeting and more — no matter the dialect of English that they use or accent that they carry.
Personal.ai captures and transcribes the unique voice of its creators, through Sync Speech, storing the memories that we otherwise forget. Wrapped in an intuitive messaging interface, these groundbreaking personal AIs, secured by blockchain technology, can recall any piece of spoken information their owners may have forgotten — augmenting the memory capacity of the human mind that normally forgets approximately 80 percent of experiences. Now with Speechmatics’ industry-leading Autonomous Speech Recognition technology, personal AI creators can be certain their memories are recorded with heightened accuracy.
Both Speechmatics and Personal.ai have made significant advancements in 2021 to make their technologies more inclusive and accessible. Already supporting 31 global languages, Speechmatics recently launched its new breakthrough technology that uses the latest techniques in deep learning and self-supervised models to take its accuracy to the next level. With this advancement, the technology continues to outperform Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft, moving the company forward in its mission to understand all voices.
In January of this year, Personal.ai announced a $5.9 million seed round from notable investors, including Differential Ventures and Built By Girls Ventures in recognition of the gender diversity on their founding team. Last month, the company successfully launched the 1.0 version of their technology on Product Hunt, receiving recognition from the site as the #1 Product of the Day on November 4, 2021, and the #1 Product of the Week.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Personal.ai, combining our technologies to help make their revolutionary platform accessible for all, no matter who you are,” says Katy Wigdahl, CEO of Speechmatics. “We strongly believe in Personal.ai’s mission to empower every individual to remember everything, and our industry-leading Autonomous Speech Recognition opens this opportunity to be more inclusive to everyone regardless of accent, dialect, age, and other sociodemographic characteristics.”
“We’re always looking to partner with like-minded pioneers in the deep technology space, and Speechmatics shares in our pursuit to use AI and machine learning for good,” says Suman Kanuganti, CEO and Founder of Personal.ai. “Their mission to understand all voices by bringing the most accurate speech recognition technology to the market means they’re the right partner to ensure our platform can be used by as diverse a population as possible, democratizing memory access for all.”
Personal.ai’s CTO, Sharon Zhang, and Speechmatics’ CMO, David Keene, were due to speak at AI Summit New York this week at Javits Center about their mutual passion for developing technology that moves the world forward - emphasising the principles of diversity, inclusivity and accessibility to all.