Proving once again that today’s scientists stop watching all their sci-fi movies halfway through, Amazon is rolling out a new feature that will allow you to make your digital assistant sound like anyone you want — including, according to them, deceased loved ones. “What could go wrong?” asked people who have never seen a single episode of Black Mirror.
The company announced that they’ll be rolling out the ability for Alexa users to upload short snippets of vocal audio which their device can then deep fake into its default voice. Amazon’s Senior Vice President and Head Scientist for Alexa, Rohit Prasad said that could include “the voice of a deceased loved one (a grandmother, in this case) who used to read a grandson a bedtime story,” according to TechCrunch.
Reuters says the goal of the program is to “make memories last” after “so many of us have lost someone we love.” Which, well, if you want to commemorate a loved one, this is certainly one way to do it. Although hearing the disembodied voice of someone close to you who is no longer with us may not exactly be the kind of “make memories last” energy we’re going for.
Anyway, Black Mirror season six coming to Netflix soon!
