Telus using AI to alter the accents of customer service agents

Understand the concerns but on the other hand, as someone whose cancer treatment impaired my hearing, both physically and mentally, this would be an improvement:

…For labour representatives, the feature is another concern among many when it comes to the effects of AI on their members. 

At a hearing before the parliamentary standing committee on industry and technology last week, Roch Leblanc, Unifor telecommunications director, called on government to require companies to inform Canadians when AI was being used. 

He told members of Parliament that the union was aware of at least one Big Three telco using AI to mask the accents of offshore agents, “altering how customers perceive who they’re talking to.”

“The use of AI technology to deceive Canadians in any way should be prohibited,” he said.

United Steelworkers Local 1944 president Michael Phillips said he is aware of Telus using the technology internally, between agents based in Canada and overseas. 

He said that he was informed by a B.C.-based Telus employee that they had spoken with an agent in the Philippines. According to that employee, “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.

“As we’re trying to figure out what the parameters around AI and AI limitations are, I think that a very clear right that Canadians should insist on is the right to not be deceived by AI, especially not by folks that they are paying to provide telephone services for,” he said….

Source: Telus using AI to alter the accents of customer service agents