For good or bad, english has taken over the world. The problem now is regional pronunciations. This makes voice recognition a bear. AIs can gradually, with many corrections learn your voice. But this customizes each to individuals with all their regional and historical quirks and speech impediments. Clearly when the AI misinterprets what you said, it means you are speaking differently than the voice it trained on. But what voice is that?
I propose that for voice recognition purposes, people learn to speak like Microsoft Sam. It should be possible to make speech recognition software that is flawless for Sam, or it least it can practice with him for tireless hours on end. Then the closer words are to the way Sam says them, the better the voice recogition software will work right out of the box.
Eventually people will talk to each other like Sam does. In a way it is analogous to the Palm Pilot way of making letters, or the QWERTY keyboard: modify human action to fit the prevailing culture. We will rebuild the Tower of Babel one story higher. God has a thicker skin since he became a daddy and I think this time he might let it go.-- bungston, Oct 25 2010 Sam sings http://www.youtube....eJk&feature=relatedSeach for Microsoft Sam on Youtube for many other examples of his dulcet tones. [bungston, Oct 25 2010] I have never heard “Microsoft Sam” and never intend to, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he/she/it does not speak English, but some kind of Merkin.-- pocmloc, Oct 25 2010 You are a Bad Person, Bungston!-- gnomethang, Oct 25 2010 Some would say that Chinese, Arabic, or Spanish are still competitive.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 25 2010 //I propose that .. people learn to speak like Microsoft Sam// Do you also propose a way of accomplishing that?-- mouseposture, Oct 26 2010 //Chinese, Arabic, or Spanish are still competitive.// A quick survey of my office reveals that each of these languages has a zero level of adoption in our workplace, whereas English has a 100% adoption rate. I therefore conclude that Chinese, Arabic & Spanish are dead languages and that the English, the English, the English are best! Hoorah! I love science! Oh, and horrific idea by the way, bung. As a contribution of materials for your new Tower of Babel, I donate this fishbone.-- DrBob, Oct 26 2010 About 400m people have English as their first language and about 2bn have it as their second language. Most of these 2bn are in India, so surely the logic behind this idea would suggest that we should all start speaking English with an Indian accent?-- hippo, Oct 26 2010 <Appalling Caricature> Goodness, gracious me! </AC>-- DrBob, Oct 26 2010 Learn to speak like some Microsoft product? I don't think so!-- infidel, Oct 26 2010 <slight aside>A couple of weeks back, I was watching the Commonwealth games boxing events. They interviewed one of the gold-medal winning boxers from Northern Ireland... His accent was so strong they could've used subtitles. This was then followed by a young boxer from Liverpool, England. He was speaking English, but it was practivally incomprehensible. I deduced what he was talking about more from the questions than his answers. A Scottish boxer was next, from Glasgow (where I previously lived and worked for over 10 years). Again I could barely make out what he was saying. They were all thoroughly entertaining!</sa>
The Queen's English is one thing, but a Microsoft equivalent? Not on your nelly. It'll be homogenised spellings next - dictated by Microsoft.Sulphur does not have an "f" in it (unless there are flourine impurities).
P.S. [bungston]: I'm guessing the idea is actually tongue-in-cheek?-- Jinbish, Oct 26 2010 random, halfbakery