Google Releases Speech Recognition App Bolo To Help Kids Learn To Read in India; Intends To Bring It To Other Countries in Future

Google today released a learning app for primary school children in India as part of an effort to cement its grip on the world's fastest-growing internet market. From a report: The Android app, called Bolo, aims to help young kids improve their reading comprehension and vocabulary skills in Hindi and English. Bolo (the Hindi word for "speak") features a range of games, and tasks, and it rewards kids as they progress.

Bolo, which is powered by Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech technology, first asks kids to read sentences. The app then listens to the efforts and reviews them, and an animated voice assistant -- called Diya -- suggests pronunciation and vocabulary corrections wherever applicable. The app comes preloaded with several stories -- Google says 90 stories in Hindi and English are available at launch. Children can engage with the app at a pace they are comfortable with, and their progress can be shared with their parents. [...] Google is releasing Bolo in India first, with plans to bring it to other countries in the future. The company said it will also add support for more languages soon.

Investment

[Anonymous Coward]

Google is investing in improving the English speaking skills of their future indentured servants. Much altruism. Wow.

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[Chicken_Kickers]

Not as servantss. Like the image recapthca, this is probably part of Google's effort to collect massive data on variations in human speech so that their speech recognition software can work better. Maybe one day, Google can sell this tech so that governments can ID someone just by voice alone. Google is now a bigger threat than Microsoft ever was.

I wish it was available on other countries

[Mike Zilva]

This should also be very useful for kids learning English as 2nd language. Can' wait to try it.

I was thinking the same thing

[SuperKendall]

Heck even adults could probably use an app that did this for English - my wife and I both read a lot, and I have to say there are several times we both knew words from reading, that either one or the other (or both) had been mispronouncing for years because I had never heard them spoken. Would be nice to have a quick check of advanced word pronunciations for adults, to help correct any errors that had crept in....

I think things like this are how the GIF pronunciation debate will finally be settled, we'll j

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[Oswald McWeany]

I think things like this are how the GIF pronunciation debate will finally be settled, we'll just have AI correct us all to use one definition until the other is forgotten.

Good luck having people not rage quit the app when being told to pronounce "GIF" the "wrong way".

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[SuperKendall]

Oh sure, THEY will rage quit... but the AI will teach their children, and in generations the "correct" (as defined by the most popular pronunciation AI) definition will prosper as the other withers.

He who controls the AI, shall control the future.

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[lgw]

He who controls the AI, shall control the future.

That was certainly how the pronunciation of "data" was settled!

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[SuperKendall]

That was certainly how the pronunciation of "data" was settled!

Yes! Great example.

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[lgw]

Kudos to Doctor Noonien Soong for building the AI that settled the debate.

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[cascadingstylesheet]

This should also be very useful for kids learning English as 2nd language. Can' wait to try it.

Memrise app uses Google speech recognition to check your pronunciation. Great for learning 2nd language.

In SF, "Bolo" has another meaning...

[alispguru]

... and not one you'd want to associate with modern AI: Bolos are autonomous, self-aware tanks [wikipedia.org].

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[fat man's underwear]

I was wondering if Laumer, who was a very worldly man, picked that name because the tanks do talk...

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[zoid.com]

And a multiplayer tank battle game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

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[bosef1]

Pillbox!

many uses

[cascadingstylesheet]

Speech recognition is useful for many things. Foreign language learning, for example. Check your pronunciation without ever having a human teacher.

There Are Many Here...

[careysub]

That could use some help in learning Hindi. Heck, I hardly know a word of it!

How is this substantially different from Duolingo?

[Bryansix]

How is this substantially different from Duolingo? That application improves reading, writing and spoken language comprehension and has speech recognition. It also teaches way more languages.

How about one for the U.S.?

[quonset]

Considering the number of people I hear every day, who are born in this country, who can't speak English in something approaching a comprehensible manner, Google might want to start at home first.

The one for China?

[AHuxley]

Time for the daily Study Strong Country to make revolutionary history.

Educating the older generation

[gupg]

This is a great initiative to use AI for improving reading and writing. I am sure the app can be used by adults too. They are in fact a bigger potential target for something like this. Educating primary school kids will have a long term impact. Educating adults today will have a very quick, short term impact. The challenge is how to motivate adults to learn to read and write (and deal with the shame of it).