In the paper today
Tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the TV page

Dan Miller of Opus Research wrote last week about Spotify’s new patent and some of the controversy around it.

In his post, he describes a battle between those who view conversational AI’s contextual, data-driven personal recommendations as “intrusive,” and those who view the exact same personalization as “customer centric.”

From Dan’s post:

Attempting to draft laws and regulations that prevent AI-based manipulation is a fool’s errand.

More importantly, it will have a chilling effect on the introduction of applications of Conversational AI that are truly helpful to individuals in their roles as prospects, customers, clients or members. Companies are either ethical, or they are not.

The fact that Spotify can suggest an artist or song that I might want to hear based on my tastes, preferences, past selections or current mood is exactly why I chose the service. Trusted retailers, hotel chains, airlines, pharmacies, healthcare providers and others are entitled to do the same.

We have to be thoughtful as we strike a balance between empathetic handling or calls for personal assistance and blanket condemnation of such efforts as blatant manipulation of individuals’ emotions.

Dan’s post is a must-read and really captures some key issues very quickly and succinctly. We’re likely to be looking back at it as soon as later this year, as the privacy conversation gets a lot louder.

This Tuesday, 12 PM Eastern / 9 AM Pacific:

Project Voice joins forces with AI Week, and we’ll hear from Voicify as they announce their brand-new Voicify 3.0 suite of new features. We’ll also get updates from CereProc and Gnani.AI.

Registration is complimentary.

In Detroit this week?

Or San Jose the week thereafter?

Ping us - we’d love to see you.

The dual Voice of the Car Summits will be two laid-back, networking-centric gatherings, specifically for executives working in the automotive sector, or those working to apply technology to the automotive sector.

Attendance will be limited due to COVID restrictions in both locations.

The Voice of Healthcare Summit will take place in Boston this August fully in-person and fully back to normal.

The planning has begun - we’d love to hear from you if you’re working to apply voice and conversational AI within any aspect of modern healthcare.

Finally, a bit of news with regards to Project Voice X, the major industry event taking place this October:

We are bringing back the Celebrity Roast, which we unveiled in 2019 with a roast of Voicebot.AI’s Bret Kinsella.

This time, the honoree will be Jon Stine, executive director of the Open Voice Network. Roasters joining the dais will be announced soon.