The cultural danger inside voice recognition by artificial intelligence
Flaws in voice recognition software like Siri may be causing more road accidents. In the long run, however, such systems will also cause, or increase, something else
Siri makes it easier to recognize dumb drivers?
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Motor1 has an article explaining how and why “Siri be causing some youngsters to text and drive”. In my opinion, the two key points are:
First, idiots will be idiots, meaning that they will keep driving dangerously no matter what. The only real solution to a problem like this is public transportation, or at least real driverless ones, not the FAKE ones being tested these days
The second point, which is the most interesting one, is hidden inside this specific reason why certain youngsters still “touch their phone while they drive”:
“because voice recognition systems, which allow drivers to send messages without touching their handsets, can’t understand their accents.”
and the point is that “Artificial Intelligence” combined with, or applied to, voice recognition is likely to cause a strong push to REDUCE diversity among accents and dialects… like broadcast TV did in the past century, but with much more strength. And possibly more quickly too. What is good for safety would not be so good, in this case at least, for cultural diversity.
Who writes this, why, and how to help
I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
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