Telus Digital using AI to mask accents of offshore workers

Telus Digital, a division of Telus, is reportedly using AI to mask accents of offshore workers on phone calls.

The Globe and Mail reports that Telus Digital is using Tomato.ai speech-to-speech models to transform live audio. Telus announced that it was using this technology nearly a year ago. Tomato.ai encodes the user’s voice, modifies any pronunciation-related features and decodes the speech back into audio.

Telus Digital is responsible for customer experience and call centres for both Telus and other companies.

Union representatives told the publication that Telus Digital is using the service internally, but it is unclear if it is customer-facing yet. The Globe requested a comment from Telus, but the company did not respond.

Roch Leblanc, Unifor telcommunication director, has called on the government to require companies to tell Canadians when AI is being used. He says that AI shouldn’t be used to deceive Canadians in any way. United Steelworkers Local 1944 president Michael Phillips said that a Telus employee told them about the conversation he had with an overseas agent. The employee said, “This overseas agent was laughing about it, turning the accent masker on and off, revealing their Filipino accent, and then, taking the accent away when they turned on the AI technology,” Mr. Phillips said.

Both Bell and Rogers told Globe and Mail that they don’t use accent-altering technology and don’t plan to.

While this technology could be useful for some, it’s quite problematic as the AI makes it easier for telecoms to hire overseas workers and pretend that they’re in Canada. We’ve seen an uptick in telecom layoffs over the last few years, with many Canadians noting a decline in customer service as carriers outsource work. Earlier this year, Telus offered buyouts to employees across Canada.

Source: Globe and Mail