Google DeepMind's AI can mimic realistic human speech

Currently, developers use one of two methods to create speech programs. One involves using a large collection of words and speech fragments spoken by a single person, which makes sounds and intonations hard to manipulate. The other forms words electronically, depending on how they're supposed to sound. That makes things easier to tweak, but the results sound much more robotic. In order to build a speech program that actually sounds human, the team fed the neural network raw audio waveforms recorded from real human speakers.