Startup uses AI to remove call centre workers’ accents and make them sound ‘whiter’

By Malavika Pradeep

Published Aug 24, 2022 at 09:11 AM

Reading time: 2 minutes

35204

Back in 2018, Boots Riley made his directorial debut with the American surrealist comedy film, Sorry to Bother You. Starring LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson and Armie Hammer, the story follows a young black telemarketer who adopts a “white voice” to climb up the corporate ladder. Fast forward to 2022, the movie’s dystopian predictions are slowly coming true—with a Silicon Valley startup now harnessing the power of AI to make call centre workers sound more “white and American,” no matter what country they hail from.

“Hear the magic,” the voice tech company, dubbed Sanas, wrote in its demo. Featuring a cropped image of a man’s toothy grin, visitors can press the ‘play’ button to hear an Indian voice reading a call centre script ‘magically’ transform into a borderline-robotic but unmistakably-white speech.

Simply put, the goal of the “accent translation” startup is to make call centre employees—many of whom are outsourced from countries where labour is cheaper and therefore have non-American accents—sound more ‘pleasing’ to American ears.

Startup uses AI to remove call centre workers’ accents and make them sound ‘whiter’

According to SFGATE, Sanas has been showered with funding by investors ever since its launch in August 2021—even bagging a $32 million Series A funding round in June 2022, which the company claims is the largest investment ever made for a speech technology service. “One press release boasts that investors who tried the service called it ‘magical’,” the publication added.

“We don’t want to say that accents are a problem because you have one,” Sanas’ president Marty Sarim told SFGATE. “They’re only a problem because they cause bias and they cause misunderstandings.” Essentially, the voice tech believes American customers will be more polite and open to accepting the help being provided if they think the person on the other end is more like them.

And this is exactly where the fundamental flaw in Sanas’ tactic comes in. As noted by SFGATE, accents don’t cause bias, they trigger pre-existing biases. To date, several call centre employees in countries like India and the Philippines have already adopted American names and are being pressured to develop accents that will sound more ‘neutral’ to Americans.

“To buy what Sanas is selling, you have to believe that the solution to harassment for people with accents—international call centre workers or otherwise—is making yourself better understood to Americans,” the outlet went on to mention.

“On the surface, it reflects communication difficulty—people not being able to understand someone else’s speech,” Winifred Poster, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, told SFGATE. “But, really, it’s coded for a whole bunch of other issues about how accent triggers racism and ethnocentrism.”

In a 2011 report, The Guardian also highlighted how call centre work involves “emotional labour,” apart from phoney identities and neutered accents, as management technologies often penetrate to the very core of one’s identity. During training sessions, employees are told that callers can see their smiles and sense their moods through their voices. “Workers must be able to ‘pass’ as American or British and maintain their composure in the face of sometimes racist abuse by irate customers—it is simply part of the job,” the publication added.

In Sanas’ case, some experts believe the technology could even worsen racism towards workers. “Customer racism is likely to increase if workers are further dehumanised when an ‘app’ is placed between worker and customer, especially since there will no doubt be errors made by the app,”  University of Toronto professor Kiran Mirchandani explained.

At the same time, however, the startup in question “doesn’t foresee anything bad coming out of this.”

“In fact, I’ll take the opposite approach and just say, this is a GDP-shifting product. This will bring millions of jobs to the Philippines, millions of jobs to India, millions of jobs to places that otherwise wouldn’t be allowed to enter that conversation,” president Sarim told SFGATE, adding how the company is currently planning to expand beyond call centres by changing accents on consumer video and audio calls.

Heck, Sanas also mentioned an interest in film and television—with new voices in the works as they robotically chant the ever-soothing mantra by merely placing a filter on the hellscape of outsourced telemarketing.

Keep On Reading

By Charlie Sawyer

First look at $1 billion UK mini city where controversial HBO Harry Potter series will be filmed

By Charlie Sawyer

22-year-old groom arrested after police find 9-year-old bride at staged Disneyland wedding

By Charlie Sawyer

Madison Beer opens up about reconnecting with the person who leaked her explicit photos as a teen

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Jeffree Star makes inappropriate comment after Kanye West posts disturbing incest confession

By Eliza Frost

Will Belly choose herself in the final episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty?

By Eliza Frost

All the Easter eggs from the first episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Is Tate McRae a secret Trump supporter? Fans react to viral speculation

By Eliza Frost

If everyone has an AI boyfriend, what does that mean for the future of Gen Z dating?

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

James Toback hit with landmark $1.68 billion jury award after 40 women accused director of sexual abuse

By Charlie Sawyer

Fans express concern after Harry Potter TV series announces the casting of Harry, Ron, and Hermione

By Charlie Sawyer

Chris Brown is facing over 10 years in prison. Here’s how his violent past has led him here

By Eliza Frost

Kendall Jenner reveals plans to quit Kardashian fame for a normal job

By Eliza Frost

Bereavement leave to be extended to miscarriages before 24 weeks

By Charlie Sawyer

UK women who miscarry could face home and phone searches following new anti-abortion police guidance

By Charlie Sawyer

The #MeToo movement is at risk. How the Harvey Weinstein retrial risks doing unimaginable damage 

By Charlie Sawyer

Why Sabrina Carpenter’s sexuality is praised and Lola Young’s is picked apart

By Eliza Frost

The swag gap relationship: Does it work when one partner is cooler than the other?

By Charlie Sawyer

Everything you need to know about toxic gossip site Tattle Life and how its founder finally got revealed

By Charlie Sawyer

Harry Potter TV series crew bewildered over production’s strange decision on location to film iconic scene

By Eliza Frost

Gavin Casalegno calls out Team Jeremiah bullying in The Summer I Turned Pretty fandom