Social networking giant Facebook has announced it will pay selected users who agree to record their voice to improve its speech recognition technology.
The announcement comes at a time when other tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have put their audio transcription programmes on hold after reports emerged that third-party contractors were listening to audio recordings.
Facebook said that selected users will get paid for their recordings through a new programme called ‘Pronunciations’ in its Viewpoints market research app, The Verge said.
Qualified users will be able to record the phrase “Hey Portal,” followed by the first name of a friend from your friends” list.
“You’ll be able to do this with the names of up to 10 friends, and you have to record each statement twice,” the report said on Thursday.
The company will not be paying much for such recordings. If a user completes one set of records, Facebook will provide them only 200 points in the Viewpoints app— and the user can’t encash in the points app until you earn at least 1,000 points. The collected points only make to a $5 reward via PayPal.
(With input from agencies)