AI firms have been engaged on voice fashions for some time now, nevertheless it appears issues actually ramped up after OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Voice Mode.
Now, Amazon has simply launched its new “basis” AI voice mannequin referred to as Nova Sonic. And it actually makes Alexa sound like she’s dwelling means previously.
In keeping with Amazon, Nova Sonic “unifies speech understanding and speech era right into a single mannequin, to allow extra human-like voice conversations in AI purposes.” With the samples supplied, it definitely does appear extra human-like than the corporate’s earlier iterations of AI voice fashions.
For instance, there are correct pauses, tone, and inflections on phrases relying on the place they’re and what they imply in a sentence. Amazon supplied some samples you possibly can take heed to right here and right here.
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Once more, “extra human-like” is the important thing description right here. There are nonetheless loads of indicators that it is an AI voice, nevertheless it additionally does sound like a giant step over earlier AI voice assistants like Alexa.
Amazon says that it achieved this by combining a number of fashions that will historically be used, like speech recognition, massive language fashions, and text-to-speech, into one single unified mannequin. In keeping with Amazon, it not solely understands the nuances in speech to provide it, nevertheless it additionally understands it when a human inputs their very own speech with these nuances as effectively.
In keeping with TechCrunch, Nova Sonic is already powering Amazon’s next-generation AI voice assistant, Alexa+.
Primarily based on current developments, it does look like the massive AI firms are at present specializing in voice fashions. So, put together for competitors in that area to warmth up. Amazon is already pointing to claims that Nova Sonic is roughly 80 p.c cheaper than OpenAI’s GPT-4o mannequin and selling it as “essentially the most cost-efficient.”
Nova Sonic is at present accessible to builders by way of Amazon’s enterprise AI developer platform, Bedrock.
