Most of the software and voice data that powers the personal assistants in our smart devices is locked up in privately owned systems. Getting access to good‑ quality data takes time and money. As a result, the cost of developing speech recognition and other software that relies on voice data is prohibitively high, giving a few companies a monopoly on these services. There is also little transparency about what data has been used to develop smart assistants, meaning that certain populations can remain underserved. These limitations make the technology less effective for some groups, such as non-native speakers with accents, or for languages spoken by small populations.
Common Voice is a Mozilla initiative, which addresses this challenge by developing the world’s first open-source voice dataset and a speech recognition engine, called Deep Speech. The concept is simple. Common Voice crowdsources voice contributions through an online platform where users are invited to record themselves reading sentences. All sentences are sourced from texts that are under a Creative Commons license , to ensure they can be freely reused by researchers and entrepreneurs in the future. Users can also listen to and validate the contributions from others to ensure that the data is of high enough quality to train an AI algorithm. The market’s leading voice technologies are powered by deep learning algorithms, which can require up to 10,000 hours of validated data to train.
As of January 2020, users have recorded almost 2,500 hours of their voices in 29 different languages for Common Voice. The aim of the project is to ensure that the data used to train voice recognition tools represents the full diversity of real people’s voices. Each data entry contains an audio file with the linked text, as well as any associated metadata about the contributor, if it is available. By making the datasets open, Mozilla is creating opportunities for a wider range of researchers, developers and public sector actors to develop voice technologies that can benefit a wider range of people. This accessibility can help to incentivise innovation and healthy competition for better tools. Mozilla released the first version of Deep Speech in 2017.
Common Voice is an example of how a collective intelligence (CI) approach to data collection – that emphasises diversity and open access – can be used to improve the development of AI, which in turn has the opportunity to be used for other CI purposes.
Programu nyingi na data za sauti ambazo zinawezesha wasaidizi wa kibinafsi katika vifaa vyetu vya akili zimefungwa katika mifumo ya kibinafsi. Kupata upatikanaji wa data nzuri-ubunifu inachukua muda na fedha. Kwa sababu hiyo, gharama za kuendeleza programu za kutambua sauti na programu nyingine zinazotegemea data za sauti ni kubwa sana, na hivyo kutoa makampuni machache ya huduma za kipekee. Pia kuna uwazi mdogo kuhusu data gani ambayo imetumika kuendeleza wasaidizi wa akili, ikimaanisha kwamba idadi fulani ya watu wanaweza kubaki chini ya huduma. Vikwazo hivi hufanya teknolojia hiyo isiwe na ufanisi kwa makundi fulani, kama vile wasemaji wasio wa asili wenye lafudhi, au kwa lugha zinazozungumzwa na idadi ndogo ya watu. Common Voice ni mpango wa Mozilla, ambao unashughulikia changamoto hii kwa kuendeleza seti ya kwanza ya data ya sauti ya chanzo wazi na injini ya utambuzi wa hotuba, inayoitwa Deep Speech. Wazo hilo ni rahisi. Common Voice inatoa michango ya sauti kupitia jukwaa la mtandaoni ambapo watumiaji wanaalikwa kujirekodi wakisoma sentensi. Sentensi zote zinatoka kwa maandishi yaliyo chini ya leseni ya Creative Commons, ili kuhakikisha kwamba zinaweza kutumiwa tena kwa uhuru na watafiti na wajasiriamali katika siku zijazo. Watumiaji wanaweza pia kusikiliza na kuthibitisha michango kutoka kwa wengine ili kuhakikisha kuwa data ni ya ubora wa juu wa kutosha kufunza algorithm ya AI. Teknolojia za sauti zinazoongoza kwenye soko zinaendeshwa na algorithms za kujifunza kina, ambazo zinaweza kuhitaji hadi masaa 10,000 ya data iliyothibitishwa ili kufundisha. Tangu Januari 2020, watumiaji wamerekodi karibu masaa 2,500 ya sauti zao katika lugha 29 tofauti kwa Common Voice. Lengo la mradi ni kuhakikisha kwamba data kutumika kwa ajili ya mafunzo ya zana za utambuzi wa sauti inawakilisha utofauti kamili wa sauti ya watu halisi. Kila kuingia data ina faili ya sauti na maandishi kushikamana, kama vile yoyote kuhusishwa metadata kuhusu mchangiaji, kama inapatikana. Kwa kufanya seti za data wazi, Mozilla inaunda fursa kwa watafiti, watengenezaji na watendaji wa sekta ya umma kuendeleza teknolojia za sauti ambazo zinaweza kufaidika na watu wengi. Upatikanaji huu unaweza kusaidia kuhamasisha uvumbuzi na ushindani mzuri kwa zana bora. Mozilla ilitoa toleo la kwanza la DeepSpeech mnamo 2017. Common Voice ni mfano wa jinsi mbinu ya akili ya pamoja (CI) ya kukusanya data - ambayo inasisitiza utofauti na upatikanaji wa wazi - inaweza kutumika kuboresha maendeleo ya AI, ambayo kwa upande wake ina fursa ya kutumika kwa madhumuni mengine ya AI.