AI startup, Sanas has a goal — make call center workers sound white and American

Silicon Valley AI startup Sanas has a lofty goal: to make call center workers sound white and American, no matter the country they're from. The voice tech company's website features a photo of a smiling man, cropped so you only see a disembodied, toothy grin. It is offering accent translation that makes call center employees many of whom are hired overseas, where labor is cheaper.

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 here. Sanas has been showered with funding by investors. Using artificial intelligence, Sanas claims on its website that it'll provide call center employees with the choice of 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.

AI changes your voice:

Eventually, the company wants to expand beyond call centers by changing accents on consumer video and audio calls. And hence have non-American accents sound more palatable to American ears. Sanas has even mentioned an interest in film and TV. Americans are heavily conditioned, through radio, TV, and other media, to accept a certain type of voice as the definitive American one.

To buy what Sanas is selling, you have to believe that the solution to harassment over the accent  people use at international call center workers is making yourself better understood by Americans. Sanas does little to remediate this hellscape. Customer racism is likely to increase if workers are further dehumanized when an 'app' is placed between worker and customer. Sanas.AI raises $5.5 million after developing software that modifies pronunciation to make accented speech more like Standard American English

A service like Sanas, would not help call center workers, even with a flawless synthetic accent. Sanas' emphasis on people in the Global South making themselves understood to Americans, as opposed to Americans accepting other accented voices. There is virtually nothing in the labor process of call centers that involves a choice by the workers in terms of technology. Sanas focusing on accent translation doesn't solve the real problems of outsourcing.

Sanas' roadmap looks ambitious. At least seven outsourcing firms have already deployed Sanas products in their call centers, according to the company's promotional material. Customers could express racism with impunity over the phone since no global laws are preventing such harassment. Sanas is offering a higher-tech way to do what outsourced call centers have done for decades: erase the human on the other end of the phone.

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