Accents under THREAT as Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple’s Siri fail to understand

BRITS are having to change the way they speak so that their latest gadgets can understand them.

New research suggests regional accents are now under threat thanks to smart AI systems like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri.

Newcastle's Life Science Centre surveyed nearly 450 Brits, and found that 79% of them had ditched their accents to chat to a virtual helper.

A third of respondents said they changed their accent "a lot", while nearly half were concerned that digital assistants could "stamp out" regional accents.

And 41% of those surveyed said that tech giants who make AI helpers – like Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft – should "do more" to accommodate regional accents.

"The same people who decades ago were frustrated as teens trying to get cinema listings from an automated telephone system are now having the same issues with their smartphones or smart speakers," said Linda Conlon, who heads up the LSC.

She added: "The technology has moved forward, but the inclusivity to cater for regional accents has not."

But are accents genuinely at risk? Probably not, according to Dr Laurence White.

Dr Laurence is a professor of speech sciences at Newcastle University, and said it's unlikely digital assistants will kill off strong Geordie, Brummie, or Welsh accents.

"If we only ever spoke to our devices and they failed to understand our accent, this might alter our speech in the longer term," he explained.

"Because of the social power of our voice, however, as soon as we talk to familiar people again, we revert to our habitual accent."

That's true enough now, but virtual helpers are becoming increasingly common – and could soon be a part of everyday life for huge numbers of Brits.

According to a June 2017 survey by Radiocentre, 9% of UK households currently own an Amazon Echo smart speaker.

And that same survey suggested this would grow to 40% by the end of 2018.

It's no secret that digital assistants struggle to understand very thick regional accents.

The internet is littered with complaints about smart speakers like the Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod, and Google Home.

On Twitter, one user wrote: "Dear @applesupport, please can you sort Siri out to understand a Scottish accent pronto. Just bought a HomePod that happens to not understand my requests."

Another said: "Loving that Siri and Alexa are finding it wild hard to understand the wee Donegal accent."

And one wrote: "The Google Home I bought my mom for Christmas doesn't understand her because her Jamaican accent is too thick."

The good news is that these smart speakers will only get better at understanding you.

Smart smeakers are based on machine learning technology, meaning they get more intelligent the more that they're used.

As Alexa and Siri try to process more and more regional accents, they'll eventually be able to handle them much more effectively.

But you might just have to adopt the Queen's English in the meantime.