MANILA, Philippines – A Japanese company specializing in avatars and artificial intelligence is rolling out a feature that can mimic the Filipino accent in a bid to break into the Philippine market.
Using the software of Rinna Co. Ltd., users can simply type text in Filipino and an avatar will verbalize the script in a conversational manner. The avatar will match the script with simple hand gestures and facial expressions.Alex Lagata, a Filipino and the global business director of Rinna, said that their software will aid many fields, including marketing, human resources, and education. Online selling and business presentations will also be easier with the help of this tool.
The use of avatars will also remove the language barrier, as the AI will be able to translate and deliver the script in over a hundred languages. It was also important for the company to mimic accents to accurately convey messages and respect the language.“We didn’t try to mimic humans for the sake of replacing them. We made this virtual human to help you do the tasks that are just mundane and repetitive,” he said.
Lagata added that while their technology can already make the avatar sound human-like, they opted to make it a little robotic-sounding so that people can tell that they are watching an AI avatar. “Rinna’s vision is co-creation between humans and AI. We still want people to know that this is still AI,” he said. –