Microsoft announced its latest contribution to the artificial intelligence race at its developer conference this week: software that can generate new avatars and voices or replicate the existing appearance and speech of a user – raising concerns that it could supercharge the creation of deepfakes, AI-made videos of events that didn't happen. Announced at Microsoft Ignite 2023, Azure AI Speech is trained with human images and allows users to input a script that can then be "read" aloud by a photorealistic avatar created with artificial intelligence. Users can either choose a preloaded Microsoft avatar or upload footage of a person whose voice and likeness they want to replicate. Microsoft said in a blog post published on Wednesday that the tool could be used to build "conversational agents, virtual assistants, chatbots and more". The post reads: "Customers can choose either a prebuilt or a custom neural voice for their avatar. If the same person's voice and likeness are used for both the custom neural voice and the custom text to speech avatar, the avatar will closely resemble that person."

The Microsoft Azure Cognitive Speech Services platform is a comprehensive collection of technologies and services aimed at accelerating the incorporation of speech into applications and amplifying differentiation to the market as a result. Among the services available are Speech to Text, Text to Speech, custom neural voice (CNV) Conversation Transcription Service, Speaker Recognition, Speech Translation, Speech SDK, and Speech Device Development Kit (DDK). AI for education is an emerging technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and learn languages. One of the most important aspects of language learning is the ability to pronounce words accurately, and this is…

Microsoft is helping to reshape the automotive industry in the way it serves its drivers with in-vehicle infotainment systems. As an example, Azure is partnering with XPeng to enable AI voice experiences for automotive brands and customers. The solution provides the industry with a fresh take on text-to-speech and expressive voice, global languages, speaker fidelity, and self-service customization. XPeng joins a growing trend of automakers rethinking investments in environmental voice. "This is a cutting-edge exploration of vehicle voice interaction in the auto industry," Xpeng automotive AI product senior expert Hao Chao said.

Microsoft is opening up limited access to a text-to-speech AI called Custom Neural Voice, which allows developers to create custom synthetic voices. The tech is part of an Azure AI service called Speech. Companies can use the tech for things like voice-powered smart assistants and devices, chatbots, online learning and reading audiobooks or news. They'll have to apply for access and gain approval from Microsoft before they can harness Custom Neural Voice. The tech can deliver more natural-sounding voices than many other text-to-speech services, according to Microsoft.