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This Startup Is Selling Tech to Make Call Center Workers Sound Like White Americans
Motherboard- Tech by Vice ^ | 8/24/2022 | Edward Ongweso Jr

Posted on 08/25/2022 6:09:03 AM PDT by TexasGunLover

Continuing Silicon Valley’s long and storied history of misreading dystopian satires as instruction manuals, a startup has created a tech product that makes call center workers' voices sound white.

The startup, called Sanas and founded by three former Stanford students, was first reported on by Joshua Bote for SFGate on Monday. On Sanas' website, you can “hear the magic”: a simulated conversation between a call center worker with an Indian accent that can be modified with a slider that applies Sanas’s accent translation. After Sanas is applied, the voice sounds more like a text-to-voice reader than another human being, but it does sound typically American and white.

(Excerpt) Read more at vice.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: business; labor
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Uncompetitive pay and benefits continue to push labor overseas.
1 posted on 08/25/2022 6:09:03 AM PDT by TexasGunLover
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To: TexasGunLover

“My name is Peggy!”


2 posted on 08/25/2022 6:10:12 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: TexasGunLover
Uncompetitive pay and benefits continue to push labor overseas.

Call center workers are deserving of minimum wage, that's why it goes to other countries. Few Americans don't take jobs at minimum wage.

3 posted on 08/25/2022 6:11:15 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: TexasGunLover

Push the scammers farther into America!!


4 posted on 08/25/2022 6:14:02 AM PDT by high info voter (Delivery )
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To: TexasGunLover

I like the first sentence of the article.


5 posted on 08/25/2022 6:16:11 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them)
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To: TexasGunLover

They need something like this. Indian call center guys are the absolute worst.

The remarkable thing is that they figured this out.


6 posted on 08/25/2022 6:17:17 AM PDT by ckilmer (qui)
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To: TexasGunLover

I suspect that the foreign accents are cultivated and used to make the phone call intentionally confusing.

If I want to engage with one of them, I have to ask 2 or 3 times what was just said.

That is to their advantage in figuring me out, and manipulating me.

I answer about 1 of 10 calls, when caller ID looks like someone I know. And they lie with caller ID, I know.


7 posted on 08/25/2022 6:18:17 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (My /s is more true than your /science (or you might mean /seance))
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To: TexasGunLover

You can root these imposters out by asking them what their favorite Journey song is.


8 posted on 08/25/2022 6:18:22 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (3,910,205 users on Truth Social)
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To: 1Old Pro
Call center workers are deserving of minimum wage

The problem is, the artificial minimum wage in the US is far too high for the job. The correct wage for a job is that which someone will perform it. By having an artificially high minimum wage, we price out the US labor force.
9 posted on 08/25/2022 6:18:48 AM PDT by TexasGunLover
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To: TexasGunLover

Do they have tech to make them not retarded? Because that would have some value.


10 posted on 08/25/2022 6:19:21 AM PDT by perfect_rovian_storm
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To: ckilmer

“Indian call center guys are the absolute worst.”

The girls and guys in Philippine call centers are helpful. The women are usually a bit bubbly.


11 posted on 08/25/2022 6:19:47 AM PDT by dennisw
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To: perfect_rovian_storm

Well put.


12 posted on 08/25/2022 6:20:06 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: TexasGunLover

What I’d like to know is who the hell is working the call centers in India for the Indians? All of the idiots are here.


13 posted on 08/25/2022 6:20:16 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Impeach Jo Jo now while we still have a country.)
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To: TexasGunLover

Well at least it will be understandable, instead of the sing-song gibberish were only a few words are distinguishable.


14 posted on 08/25/2022 6:22:15 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: TexasGunLover

Anything that makes the typical Customer service rep sound more understandable is a good thing.
Most times, if I call for help with in order on Amazon or Walmart, the CSR has such a strong Russian or Paki accent, I can barely make out what they’re saying. I have to ask them to repeat it. They usually use scripted replies anyway. “Please bear with me while I look up your account.”


15 posted on 08/25/2022 6:23:52 AM PDT by lee martell ( )
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To: TexasGunLover

If only they were all like Rosanne....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfMt4GW0PR4


16 posted on 08/25/2022 6:24:02 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: TexasGunLover

There is a service where they turn spoken words tk written so that folks who are hard of hearing can have phone conversations. I was wondering during if the app can dicifer a thick indian accent for those times when we gotta call tech support?


17 posted on 08/25/2022 6:28:52 AM PDT by Bob434 (question)
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To: Scrambler Bob

Me too
And even after they repeat it I still don’t understand. But like you said that is deliberate


18 posted on 08/25/2022 6:34:47 AM PDT by RWGinger (LGB)
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To: TexasGunLover

Many in the tech industry would really appreciate it if they could suddenly understand what a good portion of their colleagues are saying.


19 posted on 08/25/2022 6:37:14 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: TexasGunLover

No, the problem is we’re taking in millions of largely illegal low skill workers every year.

That pushes down wages and up housing costs.


20 posted on 08/25/2022 6:39:05 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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