text to speech freepbx

📢 START HERE: Introducing SmartUpgrade

Installing aws polly tts (better picotts alternative), you can now use aws polly with freepbx text to speech.

Access your instance via SSH and execute the following command to run the installation script:

*** Please note that SmartUpgrade is a utility unique to AWS FreePBX from TheWebMachine Networks. If you got here by searching the internet and are not using AWS FreePBX from TheWebMachine Networks, you can still use our install-pollytts script and AWS Polly for TTS by running the following command from the root console of your FreePBX server. You do still need to have a valid AWS Account in order to use AWS Polly:

Towards the end of the installation, you will be asked for the following information:

AWS Access Key ID

AWS Secret Access Key You can generate these keys from the AWS IAM Management Console:  https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/home

AWS Region Code Use the region closest to your server for optimal performance; will default to ‘us-east-1’ if not specified. Here’s a list of proper region codes:  https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-regions-availability-zones.html#concepts-available-regions

AWS Polly Voice ID Will default to ‘Joanna’ (en-US) if not specified. Use a Voice ID from this page:  https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/voicelist.html

Once the script is finished, you’ll want to add the ‘ polly ’ engine via Settings > Text to Speech Engines and specify ‘ /usr/bin/node ’ as the Engine Path :

Please be advised of the following limitations when using the AWS Polly engine to create TTS elements:

You CANNOT use single quotes/apostrophe (’) including contractions (use dont instead of don’t), double quotes ("), or carriage returns/newlines in your spoken text. Any of these (and possibly other special chars) will break the playback and you will get either only a partial audio file or no audio at all. Polly will automatically pronounce contractions without an apostrophe (like dont) correctly

You CANNOT use SSML at this time because the FreePBX TTS module does not support it. We are working with Sangoma to rebuild the entire TTS module to "modernize" it and bring additional capabilities like this...but we are a long way from that goal

AWS Polly has a 3000-character limit per API request. If you send more than this in a single TTS element, you will get no audio. If you need to provide spoken word longer than 3000-chars, simply break it down into multiple TTS elements and string them together in sequence within your dialplan (Part1 Destination -> Part2; Part2 Destination -> Part3, etc)

NOTE : You CAN use Asterisk Channel Variables in your TTS elements, which can greatly expand the variability of the elements you create. You can use variables like ${CALLERID(name)} to say the Caller's name or you can ensure you just speak the Caller's first name using the CUT function like this: ${CUT(CALLERID(name), ,1)} (there is a space between the two comas, which is the delimiter)

That’s it! Now you may create new TTS elements in Applications > Text to Speech and select ‘ polly ’ as the engine to use. FINAL NOTES ABOUT AWS POLLY :

AWS gives customers 5 million characters per month for free for the first 12 months, starting from your first request. You pay for usage beyond that ($4 per million chars). The way the TTS module is currently written, your TTS audio files are preserved in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/tts/ after the first time they are encoded. So long as that TTS element text field remains unchanged AND you are NOT using Asterisk Channel Variables in the elements (which are dynamically generated during each call), no additional requests will be made to Polly for that TTS element. AWS Polly Pricing:  https://aws.amazon.com/polly/pricing/

If you ever want to change which AWS Polly voice you are using, simply run install-pollytts again and select a new voice. You'll be asked if you want to delete all existing TTS audio to regenerate elements in the new voice

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TeleConnx and Deepgram Bring Speech-to-Text to Asterisk/FreePBX

With over 1M servers worldwide and adding more than 1.3M new endpoints each year,  Sangoma -sponsored  Asterisk  is the #1 open source communications toolkit in the world, serving a diverse mix of end users across SMB, enterprise, and government adopters, and use cases ranging from call centers to telephony systems. Today we are thrilled to announce our exciting new partnership with  TeleConnx  to seamlessly integrate Deepgram’s real-time speech-to-text API into Asterisk-based PBX phone systems, available for testing and purchase  here .

This revolutionary solution is set to transform the way businesses manage and process phone calls, delivering unrivaled speed and accuracy in automated, intelligent voice interactions. Instead of complex phone key-driven menus that lead to a frustrating experience, an interactive voice-powered system can get people to the right place fast through simple call routing in Asterisk. Powered by Deepgram, the new  TeleConnx  Speech-to-Text system unlocks a world where your phone system is smarter, more efficient, and more valuable than ever before.

"It’s been a wonderful experience working with Teleconnx powered with Deepgram. The team is so professional and experienced, having great customer support. Instant programmable solutions with a number of options. After upgrading to Deepgram we have experienced massive progress in daily sales, stats have gone up 25% from Google [STT] and paying 5 times less. Quality is extraordinary with Teleconnx's well-programmed integration with Deepgram, where we get 95% accuracy." 

– Salman Babar, Managing Member at Transcom Networks

With  TeleConnx  Speech-to-Text, you will experience lightning-fast and incredibly precise transcriptions that ensure your voice interactions remain smooth and uninterrupted. This is made possible by Deepgram’s industry-leading, real-time speech recognition technology–faster and more accurate than the competition–that  TeleConnx  Speech-to-Text incorporates to provide the fastest speech-to-text integration on the market. Capable of handling hundreds of simultaneous calls, it is perfect for businesses of all sizes looking to boost productivity and enhance their customer experience.

Moreover,  TeleConnx  Speech-to-Text helps your organization optimize its call handling process, automate routine tasks, and reduce response times. This leads to greater customer satisfaction, allowing your team to focus on more critical and value-added tasks. Additionally, transcribed phone calls are an often underutilized treasure trove of information, enabling you to gain valuable insights about customer behavior, preferences, and needs, paving the way for more targeted and effective communication strategies.

TeleConnx  Speech-to-Text is a game-changer for any organization looking to stay ahead of the pack in today's fast-paced, customer-first world. By upgrading your phone system today and unlocking the power of Deepgram’s industry-leading, real-time speech recognition technology, you can finally realize the true potential of your telecommunication infrastructure and propel your business to new heights. Don't miss the opportunity to experience the power and efficiency of  TeleConnx  Speech-to-Text. It's time to upgrade your phone system today and reap the rewards of unparalleled speed, accuracy, and seamless voice interactions.

We're excited about the possibilities that this partnership can bring to your customers and would love to hear from you.  Contact us  to talk to one of our product experts for more information today, or enjoy a free 30-day trial and be up and running in minutes by following this simple  3-step installation  process. We welcome your feedback, too! Please share it with us at  https://deepgram.hellonext.co/b/feedback . We can't wait to  hear  about what you want to build.

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Electrical Engineering and Systems Science > Audio and Speech Processing

Title: voicecraft: zero-shot speech editing and text-to-speech in the wild.

Abstract: We introduce VoiceCraft, a token infilling neural codec language model, that achieves state-of-the-art performance on both speech editing and zero-shot text-to-speech (TTS) on audiobooks, internet videos, and podcasts. VoiceCraft employs a Transformer decoder architecture and introduces a token rearrangement procedure that combines causal masking and delayed stacking to enable generation within an existing sequence. On speech editing tasks, VoiceCraft produces edited speech that is nearly indistinguishable from unedited recordings in terms of naturalness, as evaluated by humans; for zero-shot TTS, our model outperforms prior SotA models including VALLE and the popular commercial model XTTS-v2. Crucially, the models are evaluated on challenging and realistic datasets, that consist of diverse accents, speaking styles, recording conditions, and background noise and music, and our model performs consistently well compared to other models and real recordings. In particular, for speech editing evaluation, we introduce a high quality, challenging, and realistic dataset named RealEdit. We encourage readers to listen to the demos at this https URL .

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Musk tried to ‘punish’ critics, judge rules, in tossing a lawsuit

In a win for hate-speech researchers, a federal judge in california dismisses x’s lawsuit under the state’s anti-slapp law.

A federal judge in California on Monday threw out the entirety of a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), ruling that the lawsuit was an attempt to silence X’s critics.

“X Corp.’s motivation in bringing this case is evident,” U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer wrote in a 52-page ruling . “X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp. — and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism.”

X sued the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit in July 2023 after it published a report alleging that the social network was profiting from hate after Musk reinstated scores of previously suspended accounts of “neo-Nazis, white supremacists, misogynists and spreaders of dangerous conspiracy theories.” X alleged that the group improperly gained access to data about X and that its claims influenced advertisers to spend less money on the site, costing X tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The ruling is a win for research groups that study online platforms and a blow to Musk’s campaign to portray X’s loss of advertisers as a vast conspiracy against him. Under Musk, X has also sued the nonprofit Media Matters for America in federal court in Texas, and it threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League before reaching a détente with that group.

Musk “certainly doesn’t seem to champion free-speech rights when the speaker is being critical of him,” said David Greene, senior staff attorney and civil liberties director at the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Breyer dismissed the suit under California’s strict laws against what are known as SLAPPs, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. The judge did not mince words in his finding that the suit lacked merit and appeared to be a blatant attempt to intimidate researchers and critics.

“Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose,” Breyer wrote. “Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech.”

Under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, defendants are entitled to have their legal fees paid by the plaintiffs who filed the frivolous suit.

Imran Ahmed, CCDH’s CEO, cheered Breyer’s ruling in a phone interview Monday, calling it a “complete victory” that should “embolden” public-interest researchers everywhere to continue their work.

“It is quite clear that this was an unconstitutional attempt to shut down the free speech of critics of Elon Musk, by Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed ‘free-speech absolutist,’” Ahmed said. “It’s an enormous relief to the team at CCDH that we now can continue our mission to hold these companies accountable.”

Jonathan Hawk, an attorney representing X in the case, declined to comment. Musk could not be reached for comment, and a request for comment from X was met with an autoreply.

Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, said the ruling was “probably the best decision that could have come out of this case with a view toward actually protecting free speech.” “We don’t want the wealthy, the powerful and others to silence dissent through litigation they know is frivolous just because they have the resources,” Caraballo said.

While Musk has billed himself as a “free-speech absolutist,” he has on several occasions barred journalists and activists from the site for posting information that he said violated its rules. Caraballo experienced that last week when her X account was banned after she amplified the identity of anonymous neo-Nazi comic artist StoneToss. The platform cracked down on mentions of the user’s supposed identity and changed the terms of service to prohibit naming the person behind an anonymous account. (Caraballo’s account has since been reinstated.)

CCDH was one of several research groups that found a rise in hate speech on the site after Musk bought it in October 2022. As some advertisers paused spending on X, Musk attempted to control the damage , claiming in November 2022 that hate speech had fallen “below our prior norms.”

On Nov. 10, 2022, CCDH published what it called a “fact-check” of those claims . The group said data from an analytics tool for advertisers called Brandwatch showed that the use of some particularly vile slurs had spiked dramatically.

In February 2023, another CCDH report titled “ Toxic Twitter ” found that a group of 10 extremist accounts whose bans were lifted by Musk was generating billions of views with their tweets and likely bringing in millions in ad revenue . The implication was that Musk was profiting from the speech of people such as neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, self-described “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and leading vaccine conspiracy theorists.

X cited both reports, along with a previous report that CCDH published before Musk’s purchase of Twitter, in its lawsuit. The company said the group violated its terms of service, improperly used the Brandwatch advertising tool and violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act’s provision against unauthorized access to machines and data.

But while X accused CCDH of harming its reputation, it did not bring a legal claim of defamation, which would have required it to prove that the reports were untrue. CCDH’s lawyers suggested that might be because X didn’t want to open itself to a legal discovery process that would generate evidence about “the truth about the content on its platform.”

Breyer, the judge, took note of that choice, writing in his ruling that X wanted to “have it both ways — to be spared the burdens of pleading a defamation claim, while bemoaning the harm to its reputation, and seeking punishing damages based on reputational harm.”

In a similar case, X sued the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters in Texas in November 2023 after it published a report showing that the site appeared to be running ads alongside blatantly pro-Nazi posts. Multiple businesses, including IBM, Apple and Disney, subsequently suspended their advertising on the platform.

“The court made it clear that Elon Musk is using lawsuits to silence critics and would-be critics,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, noting that Musk had “enlisted several Republican state [attorney generals] to initiate harassing investigations against us.”

“Today was a good day for free speech, but there is a long road ahead before it can be marked safe from Musk’s abuse,” Carusone said.

Greene said he hopes the high-profile ruling against Musk will discourage others from trying to use frivolous lawsuits as a tool for intimidation and silencing critics. But he said it’s unlikely the CCDH ruling will have any bearing on the pending lawsuit in Texas against Media Matters because “the claims are different,” noting that Musk sued for defamation in that case.

Texas has become a favored venue for Musk as he has battled lawsuits in other jurisdictions. He moved Tesla’s corporate headquarters from California to Austin in 2021, and he moved the incorporation of SpaceX to Texas from Delaware in February, after a Delaware judge voided his $56 billion pay package for Tesla. The day Musk filed his lawsuit against Media Matters, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) launched a fraud investigation into the nonprofit, subpoenaing materials related to its reporting.

Joseph Menn contributed to this report.

Trump promotes Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless The USA Bible': What to know about the book and its long journey

• Former president Donald Trump encourages supporters to buy Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA Bible," a project inspired by Nashville country musician's hit song.
• Resurgent version of Greenwood's Bible project a modified version from original concept, a change that likely followed 2021 shake-up in publishers.

After years with few updates about Lee Greenwood’s controversial Bible, the project is again resurgent with a recent promotion by former President Donald Trump.

“All Americans need to have a Bible in their home and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump said in a video posted to social media Tuesday, encouraging supporters to purchase the “God Bless The USA Bible.” “Religion is so important and so missing, but it’s going to come back.”

Greenwood — the Nashville area country musician whose hit song “God Bless the USA” inspired the Bible with a similar namesake — has long been allies with Trump and other prominent Republicans, many of whom are featured in promotional material for the “God Bless The USA Bible.” But that reputational clout in conservative circles hasn’t necessarily translated to business success in the past, largely due to a major change in the book’s publishing plan.

Here's what to know about the Bible project’s journey so far and why it’s significant it’s back in the conservative limelight.

An unordinary Bible, a fiery debate

The “God Bless The USA Bible” received heightened attention since the outset due to its overt political features.

The text includes the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Pledge of Allegiance, and the lyrics to the chorus to Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA.” Critics saw it as a symbol of Christian nationalism, a right-wing movement that believes the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation.

A petition emerged in 2021 calling Greenwood’s Bible “a toxic mix that will exacerbate the challenges to American evangelicalism.” From there, a broader conversation ensued about the standards by which publishers print Bibles.

Gatekeeping in Bible publishing

Greenwood’s early business partner on the project, a Hermitage-based marketing firm called Elite Source Pro, initially reached a manufacturing agreement with the Nashville-based HarperCollins Christian Publishing to print the “God Bless The USA Bible.”  

As part of that agreement, HarperCollins would publish the book but not sell or endorse it. But then HarperCollins reversed course , a major setback for Greenwood’s Bible.

The reversal by HarperCollins followed a decision by Zondervan — a publishing group under HarperCollins Christian Publishing and an official North American licensor for Bibles printed in the New International Version translation — to pass on the project. HarperCollins said the decision was unrelated to the petition or other public denunciations against Greenwood’s Bible.

The full backstory: Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA Bible' finds new printer after HarperCollins Christian passes

A new translation and mystery publisher

The resurgent “God Bless The USA Bible” featured in Trump’s recent ad is an altered version of the original concept, a modification that likely followed the publishing shake-up.

Greenwood’s Bible is now printed in the King James Version, a different translation from the original pitch to HarperCollins.

Perhaps the biggest mystery is the new publisher. That manufacturer is producing a limited quantity of copies, leading to a delayed four-to-six weeks for a copy to ship.  

It’s also unclear which business partners are still involved in the project. Hugh Kirkman, who led Elite Service Pro, the firm that originally partnered with Greenwood for the project, responded to a request for comment by referring media inquiries to Greenwood’s publicist.

The publicist said Elite Source Pro is not a partner on the project and the Bible has always been printed in the King James Version.

"Several years ago, the Bible was going to be printed with the NIV translation, but something happened with the then licensor and the then potential publisher. As a result, this God Bless The USA Bible has always been printed with the King James Version translation," publicist Jeremy Westby said in a statement.

Westby did not have the name of the new licensee who is manufacturing the Bible.

Trump’s plug for the “God Bless The USA Bible” recycled language the former president is using to appeal to a conservative Christian base.

“Our founding fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values,” Trump said in his video on social media. “Now that foundation is under attack perhaps as never before.”

'Bring back our religion’: Trump vows to support Christians during Nashville speech

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media @liamsadams.

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Scotland’s government says a new law will tackle hate crime. Critics say it could hurt free speech

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A contentious new law against hate speech has come into force in Scotland. It’s being praised by some but criticized by others who say its sweeping provisions could criminalize religious views or tasteless jokes. Critics argue that the law will have a chilling effect on free speech. The act makes it an offense to stir up hatred on the basis of characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. The legislation does not ban hatred on the basis of gender. The Scottish government says that will be tackled by a separate forthcoming law against misogyny.

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Judge tosses out X lawsuit against hate-speech researchers, saying Elon Musk tried to punish critics

Updated on: March 25, 2024 / 6:33 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk's X Corp. against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, ruling that the case was about "punishing" the research group for its speech.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has documented the increase in hate speech on the site since it was acquired by the Tesla owner in 2022. X, formerly known as Twitter, sued the nonprofit last year, claiming the center's researchers violated the site's terms of service by improperly compiling public tweets. 

X argued that the CCDH's reports on the rise of hate speech on the service had cost it millions of dollars when advertisers fled. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer dismissed the suit, writing in his order that it was "unabashedly and vociferously about one thing" — punishing the nonprofit for its speech.

In a statement posted to X, the social media platform said it "disagrees with the court's decision and plans to appeal."

Today a federal court in San Francisco issued a decision in the case X brought against the Center for Countering Digital Hate for illegally obtaining platform data to create misleading research. X disagrees with the court's decision and plans to appeal. — News (@XNews) March 25, 2024

It's not the only time Musk's X has sued after a group flagged issues with hate speech on the social media platform. 

Last November, several big advertisers including IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast, said that they stopped advertising on X after a report from the liberal advocacy group Media Matters said their ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis. The report proved to be yet another setback as X sought to win back big brands and their ad dollars, X's main source of revenue. 

In November, X sued Media Matters , alleging that the group was trying to "drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp." 

Later that month, Musk went on an expletive-ridden rant in response to advertisers that halted spending on X in response to antisemitic and other hateful material, saying they are are engaging in "blackmail" and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.

Seeking millions from CCDH

In suing the CCDH, X had sought millions of dollars in damages from group, arguing that the nonprofit's reports led to the exodus of advertisers and the loss of ad revenue.

But the judge agreed with CCDH's argument saying X cannot seek damages for the independent acts of third parties based on CCDH's reports, or its "speech."

X had also alleged that the CCDH had "scraped" its site for data, which is against its terms of service. But the judge found that X failed to "allege losses based on technological harms" — that is, the company didn't show how the scraping led to financial losses for X.

The center is a nonprofit with offices in the U.S. and United Kingdom. It regularly publishes reports on hate speech, extremism or harmful behavior on social media platforms like X, TikTok or Facebook. The organization has published several reports critical of Musk's leadership, detailing a rise in anti-LGBTQ hate speech as well as climate misinformation since his purchase.

"Hypocritical campaign of harassment"

Imran Ahmed, the center's founder and CEO, said the lawsuit amounted to a "hypocritical campaign of harassment" by a billionaire who talks about protecting free speech but who then uses his wealth to try to silence his critics. He said the lawsuit shows the need for a federal law requiring tech companies to release more information about their operations, so that the public can understand how these powerful platforms are shaping society.

"We hope this landmark ruling will embolden public-interest researchers everywhere to continue, and even intensify, their vital work of holding social media companies accountable for the hate and disinformation they host and the harm they cause," said Ahmed.

Roberta Kaplan, the center's attorney, said the dismissal of X's suit shows "even the wealthiest man cannot bend the rule of law to his will."

"We are living in an age of bullies, and it's social media that gives them the power that they have today," Kaplan said in an email to reporters. "It takes great courage to stand up to these bullies; it takes an organization like the Center for Countering Digital Hate. We are proud and honored to represent CCDH."

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Judge dismisses Elon Musk's suit against hate speech researchers

Bobby Allyn

Elon Musk, owner of X, sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate after the group published a series of reports detailing an uptick of hate speech on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Czarek Sokolowski/AP hide caption

Elon Musk, owner of X, sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate after the group published a series of reports detailing an uptick of hate speech on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

A federal judge has dismissed X owner Elon Musk's lawsuit against a research group that documented an uptick in hate speech on the social media site, saying the organization's reports on the platform formerly known as Twitter were protected by the First Amendment.

Musk's suit, "is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose," wrote U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in his Monday ruling, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech."

Amid an advertiser boycott of X last year, Musk sued the research and advocacy organization Center for Countering Digital Hate, alleging it violated the social media site's terms of service in gathering data for its reports.

One of the group's findings, published in June, detailed how "racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, antisemitic or conspiracy content" from paid users went unmoderated on the site.

During a February hearing, lawyers for Musk asked if the suit could be refiled against the research group, but Breyer declined that request. The judge said claiming the alleged data scraping was harming the platform's safety and security does not "make very much sense."

Judge is skeptical of Musk's claims

Researchers with the center say data was compiled using third-party tools that accessed publicly available information, but Musk contended that the group scraped large amounts of data from X without the company's permission, leading to a loss of advertising revenue in the tens of millions of dollars.

Judge skeptical of lawsuit brought by Elon Musk's X over hate speech research

In a February hearing, Breyer appeared highly skeptical of X's arguments. He elaborated on those doubts in his Monday order tossing the suit.

"It is also just not true that the complaint is only about data collection," the judge wrote. "It is impossible to read the complaint and not conclude that X Corp. is far more concerned about CCDH's speech than it is its data collection methods."

Musk, a self-professed free speech absolutist, often says that nearly anything within the bounds of law should be allowed on X. However, Musk himself has been less tolerant of comments and remarks that cast him in a harsh light.

In November, Musk sued another group, the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters for America, over reports that documented how advertisements from major corporations were appearing alongside antisemitic content on X. The suit, which is still pending, calls the group's reports "a blatant smear campaign."

Musk did not return a request for comment on the Monday ruling, but in an email last month following a hearing in the case, Musk wrote: "Your org is not on X, therefore doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned," referring to NPR's decision last year to leave the platform.

Since the center won under California's so-called anti-SLAPP laws — which protect people and groups from frivolous lawsuits aimed at suppressing free speech — Musk will be on the hook to pay the group's legal fees.

"The specific amount of fees will need to be hashed out in court," said Ben Weich, spokesman for the group.

Musk has brought back previously suspended users to X

In 2022, after Musk purchased Twitter, he suspended the accounts of several journalists who covered Musk's takeover of the site, before reinstating them after a backlash.

Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, views Musk's suit as the billionaire's latest effort to silence criticism over how he is running the social media site.

"We hope this landmark ruling will embolden public-interest researchers everywhere to continue, and even intensify, their vital work of holding social media companies accountable for the hate and disinformation they host and the harm they cause," Ahmed said.

Since Musk completed his takeover of Twitter in October 2022, he has laid off a majority of its staff and brought back users who were suspended for things like espousing white supremacy and denying the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

He also turned the platform's verification system upside down by allowing users to pay for the once-coveted blue check mark.

Users of X who pay for Musk's premium service, some of them previously kicked off Twitter, have the ability to write longer posts and receive boosted visibility.

Musk has been inconsistent about the state of X's business.

At times, he says the business is strong, but other times, he points to advertising revenue being down 60% and floats the possibility of the company entering bankruptcy proceedings.

OpenAI Recommends Phaseout of Voice-Based Authentication While Previewing Text-to-Speech Model

OpenAI suggested Friday (March 29) that voice-based authentication for accessing bank accounts and other sensitive information should be phased out. 

The company said this while announcing in a  blog post that it has developed and previewed but not widely released an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can generate speech closely resembling that of an individual. To do so, it needs only text input and a 15-second audio sample of that individual. 

OpenAI also suggested in the post that society should explore policies to protect the use of individuals’ voices in AI, educate the public about the possibility of deceptive AI content, and accelerate the development of ways to determine whether a speaker is a real person or AI. 

“It’s important that people around the world understand where this technology is headed, whether we ultimately deploy it widely ourselves or not,” OpenAI said in the post. 

The company plans to “start a dialogue” on the responsible deployment of synthetic speech before releasing this Voice Engine model, according to the post.

“Based on these conversations and the results of these small scale tests, we will make a more informed decision about whether and how to deploy this technology at scale,” the post said.

OpenAI has shared the Voice Engine text-to-speech model with about 10 developers but scaled back its previously announced plan to release it to as many as 100 developers, Bloomberg  reported Friday, citing a company spokesperson. 

The company dialed back its plans after getting feedback from policymakers, industry experts, educators, creatives and other stakeholders, according to the report.

In its Friday blog post, OpenAI said: “We recognize that generating speech that resembles people’s voices has serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year.”

The company’s partners who are testing Voice Engine have agreed not to impersonate people or organizations without their consent, and to disclose to their audiences that the voices are AI-generated, according to the post.

OpenAI has implemented watermarking to trace the origin of any audio generated by the tool and it proactively monitoring how the tool is being used, per the post.

“We believe that any broad deployment of synthetic voice technology should be accompanied by voice authentication experiences that verify that the original speaker is knowingly adding their voice to the service and a no-go voice list that detects and prevents the creation of voices that are too similar to prominent figures,” the post said. 

The growing interest in and adoption of  voice technology has generated concerns about potential misuse for fraudulent activities, PYMNTS reported Friday. 

In February, the  Federal Communications Commission  (FCC) made it illegal to use AI-generated voices in robocalls, saying its ruling will give state attorneys general another tool to use against  voice cloning  scams.

Federal regulators have already recorded a jump in the use of all forms of AI in  scams . On March 17, PYMNTS reported that the Federal Trade Commission  (FTC) has seen a sharp rise in complaints about ads that either used AI or claimed to use it to pull people into scams.

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Speech to Text for inbound calls

I want to setup a speech to text for my Support Incoming Calls.

Is there any possibility that I can Convert the audio to text and then send to my analysis team.

Do you have an example on how to configure this with FreePBX?

I didn’t give the Polly a try but will give it.

however is there any example how to implement this for calls?

I was just mentioning it because jerson happened to write a great post on that.

Ok comtech thanks.

Is there anyway we can do speech to text and send it via email like voicemail notifications.

It looks like jerson just linked to Google and Watson as two methods of doing STT. You and I are both interested if there is a tutorial on how to implement this.

While waiting for jerson to reply, I found this on Google.

https://zaf.github.io/asterisk-speech-recog/ http://nerdvittles.com/?p=25136 http://nerdvittles.com/?p=593

yeah this is implemented by lot of companies so we need to implement in our company as requirement by the management.

Look this: https://jrklein.com/2015/08/17/asterisk-voicemail-transcription-via-ibm-bluemix-speech-to-text-api/

My example:

mkdir /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/ fwconsole chown

vim /opt/stt.sh

curl -k -u yourusernameibm:password -X POST –limit-rate 40000 –header “Content-Type: audio/wav” –data-binary @/var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/$1.wav “ https://stream.watsonplatform.net/speech-to-text/api/v1/recognize?continuous=true&model=pt-BR_NarrowbandModel ” 1>/var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/$1.txt #Extract transcript results from JSON response TRANSCRIPT= cat /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/$1.txt | grep transcript | sed 's#^.*"transcript": "##g' | sed 's# "$##g' > /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/stt-$1.txt sed -e :a -e N -e ‘s/\n/ /’ -e ta /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/stt-$1.txt >/var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/transcripted-stt-$1.txt

vim /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf

[speech-to-text] exten => s,1,Wait(3) same => n,Set(stt=${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},%d%m%Y)}) same => n,Record(/var/lib/asterisk/sounds/stt/${stt}.wav,3,60) same => n,System(sh /opt/stt.sh ${stt}) same => n,Hangup()

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