Where No One Has Gone Before
A conversational AI zeitgeist moment looms with this week's series finale of Star Trek: Picard
This issue of This Week In Voice VIP is sponsored by DeepZen, the synthetic voice company that has been featured in the news twice in recent weeks, once in Wall Street Journal’s piece on synthetic voice in audiobooks and the other within NBC News’ reporting on the same topic. The company will be featured at this week’s London Book Fair. You can learn more about the company here.
This issue of This Week In Voice VIP contains NO SPOILERS regarding any part of the currently airing Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard, including this week’s highly anticipated conclusion of the two-part series finale.
Famous American composer Jerry Goldsmith composed the score for 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In doing so, he had some music that had been left on the cutting room floor, that didn’t quite fit in to the theme of the film starring Captain Kirk, Spock, and Bones.
When Paramount producers needed a theme song, a decade later, for Star Trek: The Next Generation, they needed to navigate some licensing issues while spending as little money as possible.
The answer: recycling a piece of music Goldsmith had composed for the previous film.
Add some spoken dialogue from the Shakespearean actor hired to play the series’ new captain…
and the rest is history.
This is the greatest introduction to a TV show since they started making TV shows.
I’m sure there is a second place, but why bother figuring it out?
In 2018, Paramount announced Sir Patrick Stewart would return to television as Jean-Luc Picard.
Immediately, from that point five years ago, Star Trek fans knew that the moment would arrive when one of the most beloved characters in science fiction would get the opportunity for a proper sendoff - an opportunity that has now arrived this week, with the final episode of Star Trek: Picard set to air on Thursday.
The show has received rave reviews this season, equally for its nostalgia as well as its creative storytelling that wisely centers on plot rather than character. Fans around the country will gather, in person at IMAX theaters, to view the final episode together.
Star Trek has a special relationship to the world of conversational AI, in that it was among the first examples of mainstream entertainment to feature a technological environment designed around speech as the primary input and output.
Many current conversational AI stars and veterans were inspired by Star Trek to pursue their own endeavors related to using natural language to interact with computers. Amazon even referred to Star Trek as its “north star” in building Alexa.
Thus, you could easily argue that there is no conversational AI today without Star Trek.
When the credits roll at the end of the final episode for Captain Picard this week, it’s nice to note that just like with conversational AI itself these days, far more people than ever originally anticipated are now watching.
The final agenda for Project Voice 2023: The World of Conversational AI (April 24-26, Chattanooga TN) has now been published here.
An updated list of numerous media and influencers attending the upcoming conference has been made available to sponsors and partners.
This list of 300+ organizations attending the conference, which has drawn attention for the public reunion of the Siri co-founders, along with the signing of the Ethics & Integrity Charter for LLM-Based AI, has also been made available:
10 Louder
169 Labs
1904labs
3CLogic
4-soft
A Public Space
AARP
Acapela
Achronix
Actionable Marketing Guide
Aeon
Aging and Health Technology Watch
AI Data Innovations
AI4Diversity
AKFI
alter
Amazon
Amelia
Appen
Applied Brain Research
Artificial Solutions
AskVet
AssemblyAI
Asurion
Attn Live
Aug X Labs
AuraFuturity
Ava
Avaamo
AWS
Ayden Corporate Development Group
Babbly
Bailiwick Ventures
BairesDev
Barometer
Behavioral Signals
Berkeley Haas
Besnoy Law
BetterBot
Black Box
Bloomberg Radio West
Blue Check Skill
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Blutag
BNH AI
Boost.ai
Brighten AI
Brilliant
Briocare
Button Up
Canary Speech
Cashew
Cedar Mountain
ConneXus
Centific
Cerence
CereProc
Chick-Fil-A
Cigna
Cobalt Speech
CodeBaby
Colliers
Comcast
Commure
ConcertIDC
Connected Vehicle Trade Association
Conversation Design Institute
conversationHEALTH
ConverseNow
Creative House
Creative Virtual
Creci Ventures
Credera
CVS Health
CXO2
Cyara
Cyrano AI
Dashbot
DataForce
Datasaur AI
Datch
Deepgram
Defined AI
Deloitte
Detour
Dexer
DignifAI
District 90 Louisiana
Druid AI
DSP Concepts
Duck Tape DevOps
Dynamo
e2f
Educated Industries
Elavon
Elevance Health
Encounter AI
EXL
EY
Fandango
Fidelity
Flipkart
Florida
Memorial University
flowy.live
Forbes
Frost & Sullivan
Future of Privacy Forum
Futurewei Technologies
G2
Generative Assistants
Genesys
Georgia Pacific
Georgia State University
GlobalLogic
Gnani.ai
Got-It AI
Grammarly
Gridspace
Harvard Business School
HEAD acoustics
HealthEquity
Holon Institute of Technology
HomeServe
Hybrid Workforces
Hyro AI
IBM
ID R&D
IDVerifact
Immaculate Conception Basilica
In The Room
Inbenta
Innodata
Instacart
Intelligent Health Association
Interactions
Intis Telecom
Invoca
iScribeHealth
Journey
Kaleidoscope
Kanari AI
Kesha Williams
Kinetic Communications
KomBea
Korn Ferry
LAA, Inc.
LBMC
LifeScore
Lillypad.ai
Linux Foundation
Livinguard
LMO Communications
Logitech
London Institute for Mathematical Sciences
Lonely Planet
Lullaboo Studios
LXT
Mars Petcare
ME4U AI
Microsoft
Moveworks
Mozilla
MSH
Myrtle Software Ltd
Naris Communications LLC
Nation's Restaurant News
National Retail Concept Partners
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Native Voice
Navistar Defense
NBC News
Next Insurance
NICE CXone
Nissan Motor Corporation
Novartis
Novel Effect
NVIDIA
nVoq
OneReach.ai
Open Voice Network
Orbita
PandoLogic
PayTalk
Penguin Random House
Pergo Design
Planisware
Play HT
PolyAI
Predictability at Scale
Print Media Centr
Private AI
Project Voice Capital Partners
Prudential
PwC
PYMNTS.com
Raddle
Radius AI
Ragzy LLC
RAIN Agency
Re-engage
ReadSpeaker
Red Ventures
Reel2Media
Resemble AI
Resideo
Restaurant Business
Restaurant Technology Network
Riva Health
Sanas
SAP
SapientX
Scobleizer
Sensory
ServiceNow
Shaip
Shell
Sheridan College
Skit.ai
Slalom
Slang Labs
SmartListener.ai
Social Evolution
SolomonEdwards
SoundHound
SparkleHaze
Speech Morphing
Speechly
Squarespace
Stanford University
Sunbelt Rentals
susuROBO
Symbl.ai
Tableau
TEKsystems
The IVR Voice.com
The Metropolitan Group Thread
TL Tech
TQIntelligence
Trickn
Tricon Residential
Trigran
UC Berkeley
UIUC
Uniphore
United Ability
University of Central Florida
University of Cincinnati
University of South Florida
University of Tennessee
US Bank
US Department of Energy
UTC
Valence Vibrations
Vanderbilt University
Verint
Veritone
Village Haven
Virtual News Center
Vocalytics
Voicebot AI
Voiceflow
Voiceitt
VoicePlug
Voices
VoiceXD
Voicify
Volvo Car Corp
Vox.Health
Vozy Inc
VUI Agency
VUX World
Wall Street Journal
Walmart
WarriorFunds OZ
Wavestone
WayPoint Healthcare Solutions
WealthVoice
WellSaid Labs
Welocalize
WESTCARE
WillowTree
Wolters Kluwer Health
Women in Data
Wysa
Wysdom
Yobe
Yum! Brands
Zendesk
ZKH
Zoo