A Tech Startup Removes Accents from Call Center Workers’ Speech. Does that Mask Bigger Problems?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The tech startup Sanas transforms accented English to a white, midwestern American voice. Sanas contends that this technology can help overseas call center workers who are dealing with racist harassment. But those who have studied call centers and the "white voice" say this only puts a filter over the very problems the technology aims to remedy. We'll talk with experts about intolerance for accented speech, the challenges facing international call center workers and what it means to “sound white. Related link(s): - Sanas, the buzzy Bay Area startup that wants to make the world sound whiter Guests: Sharath Keshava Narayana, Co-Founder & COO, Sanas Joshua Bote, assistant news editor, SFGATE Winifred Poster, adjunct faculty in International Affairs, Washington University St. Louis; author, “Borders in Service: Enactments of Nationhood in Transnational Call Centres” Tom McEnaney, associate professor of Comparative Literature and of Spanish and Portuguese, UC Berkeley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:43.7	From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum.
1:03.0	I'm Mina Kim.
1:05.0	A California startup, Sanis, has technology that transforms accented English into something more associated with white Americans.
1:13.6	The creators say they want to help overseas call center workers dealing with racist harassment triggered by their accents.
1:20.6	But does this only perpetuate the problems the technology wants to address?
1:25.6	This hour will look at the realities of being a call center worker, the intolerance for
1:30.7	accented speech, and what it means to use your quote-unquote white voice.
1:35.8	Join us. I'm Mina Kim. Welcome to Forum.
1:50.2	A Silicon Valley startup has developed technology to make call center workers sound more like someone you might think of as white American.
	...

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