Accent Conversion in Text-To-Speech Using Multi-Level VAE and Adversarial Training

Understand

With rapid globalization, the need to build inclusive and representative speech technology cannot be overstated.

• Accent is an important aspect of speech that needs to be taken into consideration while building inclusive speech synthesizers.
• Inclusive speech technology aims to erase any biases towards specific groups, such as people of certain accent.
• We note that state-of-the-art Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems may currently not be suitable for all people, regardless of their background, as they are designed to generate high-quality voices without focusing on accent.