Accenture beats third-quarter revenue estimates
June 20 (Reuters) - Accenture (ACN.N), opens new tab beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Friday, driven by growing demand for the consulting giant's AI-driven services from enterprise customers.
The company reported revenue of $17.7 billion for the quarter ended May 31, compared with analysts' average estimate of $17.30 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
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Geeky Gadgets
23 minutes ago
- Geeky Gadgets
Professional Quality Voice Cloning : Open Source vs ElevenLabs
What if you could replicate a voice so convincingly that even the closest of listeners couldn't tell the difference? The rise of professional-quality voice cloning has made this a reality, transforming industries from entertainment to customer service. But as this technology becomes more accessible, a pivotal question emerges: should you opt for the polished convenience of a commercial platform like ElevenLabs, or embrace the flexibility and cost-efficiency of open source solutions? The answer isn't as straightforward as it seems. While ElevenLabs promises quick results with minimal effort, open source tools offer a deeper level of customization—if you're willing to invest the time and expertise. This tension between convenience and control lies at the heart of the debate. In this article, Trelis Research explore the key differences between open source voice cloning models and ElevenLabs, diving into their strengths, limitations, and use cases. From the meticulous process of preparing high-quality audio data to the technical nuances of fine-tuning models like CSM1B and Orpheus, you'll uncover what it takes to achieve truly lifelike voice replication. Along the way, we'll also examine the ethical considerations and potential risks that come with wielding such powerful technology. Whether you're a curious enthusiast or a professional seeking tailored solutions, this exploration will challenge your assumptions and help you make an informed choice. After all, the voice you clone may be more than just a tool—it could be a reflection of your values and priorities. Mastering Voice Cloning What Is Voice Cloning? Voice cloning involves training a model to replicate a specific voice for text-to-speech (TTS) applications. This process requires high-quality audio data and advanced modeling techniques to produce results that are both realistic and expressive. Commercial platforms like ElevenLabs provide fast and efficient solutions, but open source models offer a cost-effective alternative for those willing to invest time in training and customization. By using these tools, you can create highly personalized voice outputs tailored to your specific needs. Data Preparation: The Foundation of Accurate Voice Cloning High-quality data is the cornerstone of successful voice cloning. To train a model effectively, you'll need at least three hours of clean, high-resolution audio recordings. The preparation process involves several critical steps that ensure the dataset captures the unique characteristics of a voice: Audio Cleaning: Remove background noise and normalize volume levels to ensure clarity and consistency. Remove background noise and normalize volume levels to ensure clarity and consistency. Audio Chunking: Divide recordings into 30-second segments, maintaining sentence boundaries to preserve coherence and context. Divide recordings into 30-second segments, maintaining sentence boundaries to preserve coherence and context. Audio Transcription: Use tools like Whisper to align text with audio, creating precise and synchronized training data. These steps are essential for capturing the nuances of a voice, including its tone, pitch, and emotional expression, which are critical for producing realistic outputs. Open Source vs ElevenLabs Watch this video on YouTube. Gain further expertise in AI voice cloning by checking out these recommendations. Open source Models: Exploring the Alternatives Open source voice cloning models provide powerful alternatives to commercial platforms, offering flexibility and customization. Two notable models, CSM1B (Sesame) and Orpheus, stand out for their unique features and capabilities: CSM1B (Sesame): This model employs a hierarchical token-based architecture to represent audio. It supports fine-tuning with LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation), making it efficient for training on limited hardware while delivering high-quality results. This model employs a hierarchical token-based architecture to represent audio. It supports fine-tuning with LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation), making it efficient for training on limited hardware while delivering high-quality results. Orpheus: With 3 billion parameters, Orpheus uses a multi-token approach for detailed audio representation. While it produces highly realistic outputs, its size can lead to slower inference times and increased complexity during tokenization and decoding. When fine-tuned with sufficient data, these models can rival or even surpass the quality of commercial solutions like ElevenLabs, offering a customizable and cost-effective option for professionals. Fine-Tuning: Customizing Open source Models Fine-tuning is a critical step in adapting pre-trained models to replicate specific voices. By applying techniques like LoRA, you can customize models without requiring extensive computational resources. During this process, it's important to monitor metrics such as training loss and validation loss to ensure the model is learning effectively. Comparing the outputs of fine-tuned models with real recordings helps validate their performance and identify areas for improvement. This iterative approach ensures that the final model delivers accurate and expressive results. Open Source vs. ElevenLabs: Key Differences ElevenLabs offers a streamlined voice cloning solution, delivering high-quality results with minimal input data. Its quick cloning feature allows you to replicate voices using small audio samples, making it an attractive option for users seeking convenience. However, this approach often lacks the precision and customization offered by open source models trained on larger datasets. Open source solutions like CSM1B and Orpheus, when fine-tuned, can match or even exceed the quality of ElevenLabs, providing a more flexible and cost-effective alternative for users with specific requirements. Generating Audio: Bringing Text to Life The final step in voice cloning is generating audio from text. Fine-tuned models can produce highly realistic outputs, especially when paired with reference audio samples to enhance voice similarity. However, deploying these models for high-load inference can present challenges due to limited library support and hardware constraints. Careful planning and optimization are essential to ensure smooth deployment and consistent performance, particularly for applications requiring real-time or large-scale audio generation. Technical Foundations of Voice Cloning The success of voice cloning relies on advanced technical architectures that enable models to produce realistic and expressive outputs. Key elements include: Token-Based Architecture: Audio is broken into tokens, capturing features such as pitch, tone, and rhythm for detailed representation. Audio is broken into tokens, capturing features such as pitch, tone, and rhythm for detailed representation. Hierarchical Representations: These allow models to understand complex audio features, enhancing expressiveness and naturalness in the generated outputs. These allow models to understand complex audio features, enhancing expressiveness and naturalness in the generated outputs. Decoding Strategies: Differences in decoding methods between models like CSM1B and Orpheus influence both the speed and quality of the generated audio. Understanding these technical aspects can help you select the right model and optimize it for your specific use case. Ethical Considerations in Voice Cloning Voice cloning technology raises important ethical concerns, particularly regarding potential misuse. The ability to create deepfake audio poses risks to privacy, security, and trust. As a user, it's your responsibility to ensure that your applications adhere to ethical guidelines. Prioritize transparency, verify the authenticity of cloned voices, and use the technology responsibly to avoid contributing to misuse or harm. Best Practices for Achieving Professional Results To achieve professional-quality voice cloning, follow these best practices: Use clean, high-quality audio recordings for training to ensure accuracy and clarity. Combine fine-tuning with cloning techniques to enhance voice similarity and expressiveness. Evaluate models on unseen data to test their generalization and reliability before deployment. These practices will help you maximize the potential of your voice cloning projects while maintaining ethical standards. Tools and Resources for Voice Cloning Several tools and platforms can support your voice cloning efforts, streamlining the process and improving results: Transcription Tools: Whisper is a reliable option for aligning text with audio during data preparation. Whisper is a reliable option for aligning text with audio during data preparation. Libraries and Datasets: Platforms like Hugging Face and Unsloth provide extensive resources for training and fine-tuning models. Platforms like Hugging Face and Unsloth provide extensive resources for training and fine-tuning models. Training Environments: Services like Google Colab, RunPod, and Vast AI offer cost-effective solutions for model training and experimentation. By using these resources, you can simplify your workflow and achieve high-quality results in your voice cloning projects. Media Credit: Trelis Research Filed Under: AI, Guides Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn about our Disclosure Policy.
Geeky Gadgets
23 minutes ago
- Geeky Gadgets
Microsoft's Copilot Turns Notepad Into Your Ultimate Writing Assistant
What if the humble Notepad, a tool synonymous with simplicity, suddenly became your most powerful writing assistant? With the integration of Copilot, Microsoft has transformed this classic text editor into a innovative productivity powerhouse. Imagine drafting a report, only to have Notepad suggest clearer phrasing, summarize your key points, or even format your ideas into a polished layout—all in real time. This isn't just an upgrade; it's a reimagining of what Notepad can be, blending its lightweight charm with the intelligence of AI. For a tool that's been a staple for decades, this leap forward is nothing short of innovative. In this piece, Aldo James explore how Copilot's AI-powered tools are reshaping the way users interact with Notepad. From rewriting and summarizing text to tailoring tone and structure, these features promise to save time and elevate the quality of your work. But what makes this update truly remarkable is its accessibility—offering advanced capabilities without overwhelming the simplicity that users love. Whether you're a professional juggling deadlines or a student organizing notes, this evolution of Notepad is designed to meet your needs in ways you might not expect. It's a shift that raises an intriguing question: could this be the future of everyday writing? Notepad Enhanced with AI AI-Powered Tools Embedded in Notepad The addition of Copilot brings a robust suite of AI-driven tools directly into Notepad, allowing users to perform a variety of tasks with efficiency and precision. These tools include rewriting text for improved clarity, summarizing lengthy content into concise points, and formatting text for enhanced readability. Whether you're drafting quick notes, preparing detailed documents, or brainstorming ideas, Copilot offers intelligent suggestions tailored to your specific needs. For instance, you can refine a lengthy paragraph into a more concise version or convert a block of text into a structured bulleted list. These capabilities are designed to save time while improving the overall quality of your writing. By integrating these features into Notepad, Microsoft has made advanced text editing accessible to users without requiring them to switch to more complex software. Customizable Text Tailored to Your Needs One of the standout features of Copilot in Notepad is its ability to adapt to your personal preferences. You can customize the tone of your writing to suit different contexts, whether you need a formal tone for professional documents, a casual tone for informal communication, or even a marketing-oriented style for promotional content. Additionally, Copilot allows you to adjust the length of your text, making it suitable for tasks ranging from drafting brief emails to creating comprehensive reports. The tool also offers flexible formatting options, allowing you to structure your text into lists, paragraphs, or other layouts. This adaptability ensures that the output aligns with your specific goals, making Copilot a valuable resource for a wide range of writing tasks. Whether you're a student, a professional, or a casual user, these features provide the flexibility needed to meet diverse requirements. MS Copilot in Notepad 2025 Watch this video on YouTube. Stay informed about the latest in AI-powered text editing by exploring our other resources and articles. Interactive Editing for Enhanced Precision Copilot's interactive editing capabilities make the process of refining text more dynamic and user-friendly. When you highlight a section of text, the tool generates multiple rewriting suggestions, giving you the opportunity to evaluate and select the best option. If none of the suggestions meet your expectations, you can use the 'try again' feature to request alternative edits. This iterative approach enables you to refine your content until it meets your standards, making sure a polished and professional final result. This feature is particularly useful for users who want to experiment with different writing styles or improve the clarity of their text. By providing real-time suggestions and allowing for multiple iterations, Copilot makes the editing process more efficient and less time-consuming. This interactive functionality sets it apart from traditional text editors, offering a level of precision that enhances the overall writing experience. Streamlined Productivity with Quick Shortcuts Efficiency is a core focus of the Copilot integration in Notepad. The tool includes quick shortcuts for common tasks such as summarizing, rewriting, or formatting text. These shortcuts are designed to integrate seamlessly into your workflow, allowing you to perform complex actions with minimal effort. For example, you can instantly summarize a long document into key points or reformat text for better readability with just a few clicks. By embedding these advanced capabilities into a lightweight application like Notepad, Microsoft ensures that users can harness the power of AI without the need for resource-intensive software. This approach not only enhances productivity but also preserves the simplicity and accessibility that have made Notepad a trusted tool for decades. Seamless Integration with the M365 Ecosystem To access Copilot in Notepad, users need an M365 subscription, which is available in personal, family, or business plans. The integration is designed to be intuitive, with a Copilot icon conveniently located in the top-right corner of the application. This ensures that the advanced features are easily accessible without disrupting the familiar Notepad interface. By linking Copilot to the broader M365 ecosystem, Microsoft provides a cohesive experience across its suite of productivity tools. This seamless integration allows users to transition effortlessly between applications, enhancing overall efficiency. Whether you're working on a document in Word, creating a presentation in PowerPoint, or drafting notes in Notepad, the consistent functionality of Copilot ensures a smooth and productive workflow. Notepad Transformed for the Modern User The integration of Copilot into Notepad represents a significant evolution for this classic application. By combining the simplicity of Notepad with the advanced capabilities of AI, Microsoft has created a tool that caters to a wide range of users, from casual note-takers to professionals managing complex projects. With features like customizable text editing, interactive suggestions, and seamless integration with the M365 ecosystem, Copilot in Notepad redefines what a text editor can achieve. Whether you're looking to streamline your workflow, enhance the quality of your writing, or organize your ideas more effectively, this update ensures that Notepad remains a relevant and powerful tool in an increasingly AI-driven world. Media Credit: Aldo James Filed Under: AI, Top News Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn about our Disclosure Policy.
The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
Purdue Pharma's $7B opioid settlement plan could get votes from victims and cities
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma 's $7 billion-plus plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids will go before a judge Friday, potentially setting up votes on whether to accept it for local governments, people who became addicted to the drug and other groups. This month, 49 states announced they have signed on to the the proposal. Only Oklahoma, which has a separate settlement with the company, is not involved. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Sean Lane could decide as soon as Friday whether to advance the nationwide settlement, which was hammered out in negotiations between the company, groups that have sued and representatives of members of the Sackler family who own the company. If Lane moves the plan forward as it's been presented, government entities, emergency room doctors, insurers, families of children born into withdrawal from the powerful prescription painkiller, individual victims and their families and others would have until Sept. 30 to vote on whether to accept the deal. The settlement is a way to avoid trials with claims from states alone that total more than $2 trillion in damages. If approved, the settlement would be among the largest in a wave of lawsuits over the past decade as governments and others sought to hold drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies accountable for the opioid epidemic that started rising in the years after OxyContin hit the market in 1996. The other settlements together are worth about $50 billion, and most of the money is to be used to combat the crisis. In the early 2000s, most opioid deaths were linked to prescription drugs, including OxyContin. Since then, heroin and then illicitly produced fentanyl became the biggest killers. In some years, the class of drugs was linked to more than 80,000 deaths, but that number dropped sharply last year. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a version of Purdue's proposed settlement. The court found it was improper to protect members of the Sackler family from lawsuits over opioids, even though they themselves were not filing for bankruptcy protection. In the new version, groups that don't opt in to the settlement would still have the right to sue members of the wealthy family whose name once adorned museum galleries around the world and programs at several prestigious U.S. universities. Under the plan, the Sackler family members would give up ownership of Purdue. They resigned from the company's board and stopped receiving distributions from its funds before the company's initial bankruptcy filing in 2019. The remaining entity would get a new name and its profits would be dedicated to battling the epidemic. Most of the money would go to state and local governments to address the nation's addiction and overdose crisis, but potentially more than $850 million would go directly to individual victims. That makes it different from the other major settlements. The payments would not begin until after a hearing, likely in November, during which Judge Lane would be asked to approve the entire plan if enough of the affected parties agree.
