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Doha, Qatar: On Tuesday, Apple announced a new feature that claims to replicate a user's voice for phone calls after just 15 minutes of training, reported CNN.
The upcoming tool known as ‘Personal Voice’ allows users to record text prompts as audio, which allows the technology to learn their voice.
An accompanying feature called “Live Speech” will utilize the "synthesized voice" to read the user's typed text during phone calls, FaceTime conversations, and in-person interactions.
Additionally, users can save frequently used phrases for convenient use in live conversations.
These enhancements are part of Apple's broader effort to make their devices more inclusive for individuals with cognitive, vision, hearing, and mobility disabilities.
Apple emphasized that the tools would be particularly beneficial for people facing conditions that gradually diminish their ability to speak, such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
Sarah Herrlinger, Apple's senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives, highlighted the company's commitment to accessibility in a company blog post, remarking that "accessibility is part of everything we do at Apple."
“These groundbreaking features were designed with feedback from members of disability communities every step of the way, to support a diverse set of users and help people connect in new ways”, Sarah added.
Apple has announced that these features will be available later this year.
While these tools have the potential to address genuine needs, their release coincides with concerns regarding the misuse of convincing fake audio and video, commonly referred to as "deepfakes," enabled by advancements in artificial intelligence.
Addressing these concerns, Apple reassured users in its blog post that the Personal Voice feature uses “on-device machine learning to keep users’ information private and secure.”
