The Friendship of Respeecher and Open Voice Network Gives Way to an Industry Ethical Standards for Synthesized Voice Technology

Respeecher, an Emmy-winning speech-to-speech voice cloning service, and Open Voice Network, team up to develop a set of standards and ethical use guidelines to encourage user trust in the voice cloning industry.

Synthesized voice is becoming a common interface for the Internet of Things, movies, and broader entertainment. It is significantly re-shaping customer relationships and lifting corporate productivity, accessibility, and inclusion. However, voice projects often raise critical questions of privacy, data security, ease of use, brand protection, and interoperability.

Audio fakes force us to consider the veracity of the information we hear as it can be used as a weapon of deception. This leads to a “trust gap” regarding voice technology.

Open Voice Network (OVON) is an open-source association dedicated to advancing open standards that support the adoption of AI-enabled voice assistance systems.

Its mission is to develop guidelines that will ensure voice technology is used for ethical projects — and doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. OVON believes that a proven way to close the trust gap is through the communal development and adoption of standards and usage guidelines.

Respeecher understands the importance of developing ethical voice cloning principles as a voice cloning service. While we are using it to revolutionize movies, video games, and other creative projects, it can also be used to fool people into thinking that someone said something they didn’t.

In order to ensure these principles are not violated, Respeecher follows five golden rules:

• Respeecher does not provide any public API for creating new voices
• Respeecher works directly with clients we trust
• Respeecher requires written consent from the voice owners
• Respeecher only approves projects that meet our strict standards
• Respeecher is developing watermarking technology that allows us to easily identify Respeecher-generated content from other content, even if it is disguised using methods such as mixing with other audio

Respeecher’s friendship and collaboration with the Open Voice Network will nurture trust, openness, and inclusivity to help both providers and clients get the most out of this emerging technology.

Respeecher plays an active role in OVON’s conferences and panels, as a voice cloning expert, explaining the technical aspects of the technology and the potential dangers that it may introduce. Respeecher is also involved in the development of OVON standards for their further promotion to the voice generation market.

“Sticking to the ethical principles of using voice technology, educating people on the boundaries of what is permitted, and creating entertaining products that will not harm people is our highest priority. Partnering with the Open Voice Network will help us create global standards and share best practices that will help organizations accelerate innovation in this sphere”, said Alex Serdiuk, Chief Executive Officer at Respeecher.

This article was initially published on the Respeecher blog.