Bork!Bork!Bork! UK water company Severn Trent learned an unfortunate lesson about text-to-speech systems when a robocall to customers went hilariously wrong.
A Reg reader received an automated call warning of potential water discoloration during planned works from January 19-25. The message advised running taps for twenty minutes if the water appeared discolored – standard stuff, if a bit robotic.
In the recording forwarded to us, a female voice told our reader what to expect. All good, if a little robotic.
However, things went off the rails a bit when the robot attempted to read out the URL for Severn Trent: http://www.stwater.co.uk/discolouration.
For anyone concerned, the URL redirects to a secure connection.
The robot took a run at it, but the result was unlikely to be what the water company wanted. We imagine Severn Trent was hoping for “S T Water,” but instead got “S Twatter.”
Windows 2000 rusts in peace by the sea
Moon hotel startup hopes you get lunar lunacy, drop $1M deposit for 2032 stay
Lego crams an ASIC in a brick to keep kids interested
Sight of Clippy, Internet Explorer scares baby
Cornish recycling drive sows confusion among Reg Standards Bureau
Text-to-speech blunders are nothing new. This writer has fond memories of home computers with primitive speech synthesizers producing similar gaffes to the horror of listening parents, and later validating Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVRS) to spare customers confusion and embarrassment.
Decades later, and in an era where Artificial Intelligence should be able to navigate linguistic landmines, it’s almost reassuring that blindly feeding text into a system without human verification can still produce unintended results.
Unless Severn Trent, a UK water company, is about to undergo a rebrand, and the robot has inadvertently blabbed. Calling yourself S Twatter, however, would be a very brave move, particularly in the UK.
Someone should probably add a quality check to that robocall system. ®
