As a team, we try to choose projects that reflect our values. At first, we had doubts. Would we feel like outsiders in Southeast Asia? And what could we really offer if we still knew so little about people’s everyday lives?
After living in Malaysia for a while, one thing became clear. Basic human values are the same everywhere.
So what motivates our team today?
Marina, ML Researcher at NCSpeech, says:
“My grandmother is 90 years old. I see how difficult it is for elderly people to recognize small icons on a smartphone or tap virtual buttons when they simply want to open a banking app or make an online purchase.
Because of this, many older people still prefer to communicate with stores by phone and learn about products from TV or printed brochures.
I believe that apps with voice control can be a great solution for seniors. They help people stay connected and manage their finances without feeling cut off from the world.”
Every voice assistant starts with the same first step: collecting a voice dataset in the target language. This is exactly what we are doing now for the Malay language. It is an interesting but very labor-intensive process, and we will share more about it in the next posts.
And now a question for you. What technology-related requests do your grandparents most often come to you with?