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Smart digital assistants threaten regional accents, research says

Proud Geordies, Scousers and Glaswegians beware. Accents from all the corners of Britain are under threat from the rising popularity of personal digital assistants, according to new research.

People with strong regional twangs and lilts are finding themselves reverting to received pronunciation when talking to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google in order to be better understood, according to a report from the Life Science Centre in Newcastle.

It claims nearly four fifths of speakers with regional accents say they deliberately adjust the way they speak in order to prevent hiccups when using voice recognition systems.

Smart speakers such as Amazon's Echo have surged in popularity in recent months, becoming a regular fixture in homes around the UK. A recent Ofcom report estimated that 13pc of households now have a smart speaker.

Artificial intelligence voice assistants in the speakers, such as Alexa, can listen out for questions or requests. Speaking the wake word "Alexa" will launch the speaker, which can be asked to read the news, make a purchase online, play music or answer a question.

Speech recognition systems tend to be less good at local accents because the data used to train them comes from speakers without strong regional accents.

Dr Laurence White, Newcastle University

But people with thick regional accents often find themselves repeating phrases to some smart devices. While voice technology can pick up almost any word on its own, it can easily misunderstand local accents or be stumped by  slang.

According to the Life Science Centre, 79pc of respondents who had an accent said they changed their voice to talk to their personal assistants. Around half said they were worried technology could eventually lead to regional accents dying out.

Amazon Alexa smart speaker - Credit: Reuters
An Amazon Alexa smart speaker device Credit: Reuters

"At the moment we have to adapt our voices," Linda Conlon, chief executive of Life Science Centre told the Telegraph. "Wouldn’t it be great if the machine had the right data sets to second guess the way I am going to speak."

At a glance | Amazon Echo
At a glance | Amazon Echo

Dr Laurence White, senior lecturer in speech and language sciences at Newcastle University, said that if people only ever spoke to their devices it would alter their accents in the longer term, although most people tend to return to their accents out of habit.

Getting artificial intelligence software to improve its understanding of accents will require them to be trained on larger data sets that are tailored for use in different regions. Dr White said: “Off-the-shelf speech recognition systems tend to be less good at local accents because the data that engineers use to train their devices generally come from speakers without strong regional accents."

Technology intelligence - newsletter promo - EOA
Technology intelligence - newsletter promo - EOA

With the booming popularity of smart speakers, people have taken to social media to vent their frustrations at being misheard. One viral clip features a woman with a strong Scottish accent asking Alexa to play a song. She is repeatedly ignored, until she speaks in a feigned Cockney accent. Alexa responds immediately.

But it is not only the UK's regional accents that are under threat. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that Google Home and Amazon's Alexa were around 7pc less accurate at responding to Spanish-American accents than they were at responding to West Coast American voices.

Amazon Alexa | Everything you need to know
Amazon Alexa | Everything you need to know

And the challenge of training voice assistants to understand accents is not limited to English. Alexa already "speaks" English, German, Japanese and recently added French earlier this year. Amazon introduced test versions of Alexa to workers in its French logistics centres to train it to better understand the nuances of the language. Not only that, but French Alexa went to great lengths to learn local nursery rhymes and add local skills, such as being able to find stories from local newspapers like Le Figaro. 

"We’ve worked hard to ensure Alexa can understand multiple accents, and Alexa is designed to get smarter every day," an Amazon spokesman said. "As more people speak to Alexa, with various different accents, the more she adapts to speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences."