--- title: "Cursed Startup Using AI to Remove Call Center Workers’ Accents" description: "A new \"accent translation\" startup's technology sounds a lot like the premise of Boots Riley's 2018 masterpiece \"Sorry To Bother You.\"" date: "2022-08-23" modified: "2022-08-23" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/startup-ai-remove-call-center-accents" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "accent translation" - "artificial intelligence" - "speech editing" - "voice technology" --- # Cursed Startup Using AI to Remove Call Center Workers’ Accents ![A new "accent translation" startup's technology sounds a lot like the premise of Boots Riley's 2018 masterpiece "Sorry To Bother You."]() *Photo by David Trood. Picture number DT1808. Date: 18.06.2003 People working in dark room on computers. \Image: Getty Images\* When Boots Riley's "Sorry To Bother You" dropped in 2018, we knew it was only a matter of time before some of the film's dystopian predictions started to come true. But we've gotta admit, AI technology that converts realtime speech into a cookie cutter, white-coded accent is pushing it. As [*SFGATE* reports](), a startup called Sanas is offering "accent translation" that makes call center employees — many of whom are hired overseas, where labor is cheaper, and hence have non-American accents — sound more palatable to American ears. In short: yes, this startup really does [make call center workers sound more white](), and judging by the $32 million it's raised in its first series of funding, investors think there's a big business opportunity there. Using artificial intelligence, [Sanas claims on its website]() that it'll provide call center employees with the choice whether or not to make their accents sound more like "standard American English" — a choice that will, per the company's marketing, help these workers "take back the power of their own voice." That choice, as experts who spoke to the *SFGate* note, would likely be illusory. Call center works are deeply beholden to customer feedback, and if they realize that customers prefer the non-accented AI version of their speech, the incentive structure will almost certainly force their hand. And as Sanas president Marty Sarim admitted to the paper in an email, company owners "will hold the admin rights" to the technology. "There is virtually nothing in the labor process of call centers which involves choice by the workers in terms of technology," Winifred Poster, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told *SFGate*. Beyond those issues is the company's demo voice itself, which frankly [doesn't sound all that human](). The University of Toronto's Kiran Mirchandani, whose research was on the treatment of Indian call center employees, predicts that the type of callers who would be likely to be racist or angry towards accented call center workers are also likely to get abusive if they hear a robotic app voice. "Customer racism is likely to increase if workers are further dehumanized when an ‘app’ is placed between worker and customer," she told the *SFGate*, "especially since there will no doubt be errors made by the app." Sanas' president, however, told the paper that he doesn't "foresee anything bad coming out of this." "We don't want to say that accents are a problem because you have one," Sarim told *SFGate*. "They're only a problem because they cause bias and they cause misunderstandings." Sorry to bother you, dude, but that seems dubious. **READ MORE:** [Sanas, the buzzy Bay Area startup that wants to make the world sound whiter]() \[*San Francisco Gate*\] **On the brighter side of AI voice tech:** *[Val Kilmer's Dialogue in "Top Gun: Maverick" Was Read By An AI Because He Can't Speak Anymore]()* []() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()