A Telugu voice assistant to train computers and phones to speak like humans in that language is being developed by an organisation called Swecha.
Named ‘Swecha Gonthuka’, the developers are in the process of collecting Telugu voice samples to amass 10,000 hours of voice data by the end of February.
As part of this unique initiative, the AI for Telugu concert was held where singer and composer Ram Miriyala donated his voice sample. He said, “It was a special experience, the voice you all gave means a lot for AI.”
“An AI for Telugu concert is hosted to encourage public participation and capture the essence of local dialects. The idea was to ask people to participate, simply donate their voice, or even better, as a family, by recording 50 Telugu sentences. This will aid in building a dataset that will power the next generation of AI in Telugu. The results will be showcased at the Swecha AI Conference in March,” says Kiranchandra of Swecha Foundation.
Swecha Telangana aims to provide global software solutions to locals with the free software development model. It has already created AI Chandamama Kathalu engaging over 8,000 participants.
