Voice as an Identity Element in the Hybrid Reality of the Human-voice Assistant Relationship

Keywords: voice assistant, voice, hybrid reality, communication, artificial intelligence, identity

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of voice assistants, whose speech synthesis algorithms mimic the natural human voice. Numerous studies show that users of such devices and applications treat them as social beings. This behaviour results from the hybrid nature of the communication reality, in which the characteristics of the natural voice that evoke specific reactions are transposed onto a technologically processed voice. Diagnosis of this issue, which includes aspects of the peculiarities of synthetic speech and the modelling of emotional qualities in the generated voice, allows us to conclude that humans intuitively give the voice of an assistant those qualities that the natural voice signals in interpersonal contacts. Since, from a social point of view, the voice is a carrier of the speaker’s identity (i.e., physical, psychological, and social characteristics), the article shows why the possibility of cloning the voice shatters the cultural order of perceiving the voice as an element of a particular person’s identity, and why it disrupts the awareness of the distinctiveness of one’s own and another’s voice.

Author Biography

Grażyna Stachyra, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej w Lublinie

Dr hab., profesor zwyczajny UMCS w Katedrze Komunikacji Medialnej Instytutu Nauk o Komunikacji Społecznej i Mediach. Bada nowe formy komunikacji audialnej i emisję głosu w mediach audiowizualnych. Autorka m.in. The Radio Plays Games („European Journal of Communication”, Vol. 27(3)2012); Radio in the workplace. A liminal medium between work and leisure („Media Culture & Society”, Vol. 37(2)2015).

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Published
2023-08-10
How to Cite
[1]
Stachyra, G. 2023. Voice as an Identity Element in the Hybrid Reality of the Human-voice Assistant Relationship. Perspectives on Culture. 42, 3 (Aug. 2023), 179-190. DOI:https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2023.4203.14.
Section
Culture (in) Hybrid Reality