Latest news with #ScotRail
Daily Record
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Scots voiceover artist claims Edinburgh bus company used AI version of her voice without permission
It comes less than a week after another artist revealed a synthetic version of her voice had been used on board ScotRail trains. A Scots voiceover artist has condemned an AI company for creating a synthetic version of her voice - which she says has been used for announcements on public buses in Edinburgh. Diane Brooks says Belgian company Acapela is guilty of "stealing her vocal soul" after they used voice recordings she made for them 11 years ago. The synthetic voice, known as "Rhona", has allegedly been supplied to bus operator Lothian to use for passenger announcements. Diane believes Rhona may have also been used by other transport operators, and thinks other voiceover artists are likely to have been similarly treated. She said: "I am sorry to say and unbeknown to me, my voice is the voice on Lothian buses. I had done a text-to-speech (TTS) project in 2014 when TTS was in its infancy and had known my voice was on Acapela as Rhona, but thought it wouldn't get used as it has been. "I have felt very strongly for a long time that I had to do something, but felt a bit alone about it all, and what chance would I have against a big corporate company?" It comes less than a week after another Scots voiceover artist revealed an AI-generated version of her voice had also been used on public transport in Scotland. Midlothian-based Gayanne Potter recently revealed an AI version of her voice had been used for announcements on ScotRail trains, which left her feeling "violated". The voice, known as "Iona", replaced older messages on some routes which were recorded by a human. Gayanne says it is based on recordings she made in 2021 for ReadSpeaker, a Swedish company. Diane said when it was revealed that Gayanne's voice had been used by ScotRail, "it has given me the strength to do something about it, as it's an infringement of my rights as a voiceover artist". She added: "The worst thing is that I have no control of my own voice. I don't know where it will end up and basically, they have stolen my vocal soul. At first I was quite upset, but now I'm really angry. It's not right. "It's a relief to know I am not the only one who is in the situation and am sure more voiceover artists will come out of the woodwork with the same issue. We must stick together and show a united approach to it all and we can't let these big corporate companies take away our identities and our livelihoods." Diane said she was now taking legal advice"as I want to make sure I have all the ammo I need to take on these companies that really take advantage in the most profitable way for them". She said: "I hope strength in numbers will truly resolve this issue as AI is becoming increasingly dominant in everything we do and as voiceover artists we must be better protected in our work." Her work has included BBC Bitesize, TV and radio advertisements, and announcements for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She said she had recorded phrases for her agent, Scottish Voiceovers, now part of Voquent, on behalf of Acapela, but she had not been clear what they were to be used for and did not remember signing a contract. The recordings were later used by Acapela to create Rhona. Diane said: "You are trusting your agent to do the best for you and look at things." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Performing arts union Equity said such cases had become common, which it said infringed its members' rights. Liam Budd, its industrial official for recorded media, said: "It is extremely exploitative for companies to use and commercialise voice recordings to create digital replicas of artists from contracts which pre-date the development of generative AI or were not drafted explicitly for this purpose. "Sadly, we have heard from numerous performers who have lost control over their voice or likeness, and had their privacy and likeness hijacked through the misuse of AI. Such misuse is an attack on our members' fundamental rights. "The union continues to call on the [UK] government for legal certainty around the use of historic contracts for AI-purposes and greater enforcement of existing GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] laws, which give our members much-needed protections, but are currently being ignored." A spokesperson for Lothian, which is owned by the City Of Edinburgh Council, said: "We have two different passenger information systems in use. One uses a recording of a commissioned voice artist for mp3 playback, and the other uses a text-to-speech engine to synthesize a voice. "Lothian is a licensed user of the text-to-speech engine, which originates from our equipment supplier and as such we were not involved in its creation." Lothian added the engine had been supplied by a passenger information equipment provider, which it has yet to name. It said it had "no direct agreement or contract with Acapela". The City of Edinburgh Council said it had nothing to add. Acapela, Voquent and Scottish Voiceovers have been approached for comment.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
ScotRail news, interviews and updates on the railway operator
Scotrail is a publicly owned, nationalised rail service operated on by The Scottish Government and overseen by Scottish Rail Holdings Limited. The train service was returned to public ownership in April 2022 after The Scottish Government ended its ten-year contract with Abellio three years early. The Dutch state-owned railway company had been awarded the franchise in 2015 to run until 2025, but the deal was cut short following criticism over cancellations and performance. The contract was worth more than £7 billion, according to the BBC. Read on for all the latest ScotRail news, interviews and updates. As reported by The Herald, here is a selection of the latest ScotRail news stories. Scot Gov declines to reveal cost of Intercity bids process ScotRail warning ahead of Far North Line improvement works ScotRail: Glasgow Central trains face disruption amid issue On-peak travel is generally between 06:00 and 09:15, and 16:30-18:00. Always check with ScotRail before you travel to ensure you have the correct ticket. John Swinney announced the peak train fares in Scotland will be scrapped permanently from from September 1 2025. The First Minister confirmed the policy at Holyrood, following a pilot scheme that removed peak-time ScotRail fares but ended in September last year following 'limited success'. Transport Scotland said the scheme - which was subsidised by the Scottish Government and standardised tickets across the day - 'did not achieve its aims' of persuading more people to car journeys for rail travel. ScotRail's off-peak tickets can be used after 9.15am on weekdays, and at any time on the weekend and on Scottish bank holidays. Some evening travel restrictions apply to off-peak tickets depending on the station or route. Always check with ScotRail before you travel to ensure you have the correct ticket (Image: Archive) The ban on drinking alcohol on ScotRail services is set to come to an end. First Minister John Swinney made the announcement when he made his Programme for Government statement to Holyrood. The document said the ban is 'counter-productive and ineffective'. A press release from the Scottish Government, which also announced the ending of peak train fares, said: "ScotRail peak rail fares abolished and the general alcohol ban on ScotRail trains removed and replaced with time and location restrictions." A blanket ban on drinking alcohol on ScotRail trains was introduced during Covid-19 in November 2020 and was extended 'for the foreseeable future' in 2022. The 24/7 ban prohibited drinking alcohol at any Scottish station or on any ScotRail service. Transport union RMT said ScotRail's ban cannot be 'adequately enforced', and has called on the train operator to tackle anti-social behaviour. The alcohol ban on ScotRail services has been around since November 2020 (Image: Newsquest) Gordon Martin, organiser at RMT Scotland, told The Herald: "It is not the job of rail workers to police the anti-social behaviour of passengers, and it is clear the rules around alcohol consumption cannot be adequately enforced. "What we need is for ScotRail to take real responsibility for dealing with anti-social and violent conduct, and to ensure every assault on staff is treated seriously and prosecuted to the full extent of the law." Domestic pets, such as dogs, cats, or tortoises, are allowed on ScotRail train services. According to the operator's website, up to two pets are allowed, but they must be on a lead or in a travel cage. ScotRail has options for frequent travellers to save money. Train season tickets offer a 40 per cent saving for those commuting five days a week. There are weekly, monthly, or annual options for the Season Tickets. With the removal of peak fares, season tickets were discounted by 20 per cent for a year and that will continue as planned until September. ScotRail say Flexipass provides a 30 per cent discount, allowing 12 single or six return journeys on the same route within 60 days. More information on ScotRail's railcards and tickets is available on its website. ScotRail passengers experiencing delays of 30 minutes or more could be entitled to compensation. This also applies to missed connections caused by ScotRail train delays. Claims must be made within 28 days of the delay.
Edinburgh Live
2 days ago
- Climate
- Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh fans left soaking as heavy downpours hit before Robbie Williams appearance
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Unfortunate Edinburgh Robbie Williams fans have been caught in torrential downpours while waiting for the star to take to the stage at Murrayfield. The singer is kicking off the first leg of his Britpop tour in the Scottish capital on Saturday and the weather has certainly not been in his and his fans' favour with showers starting as thousands flocked to the West End stadium. Following a brief period of sunshine the heavens well and truly opened as footage from inside the stadium shows hundreds of fans wearing waterproof ponchos and standing with their hoods up. Several also took to social media to say they were forced to chuck their own umbrellas in the bin ahead of the gig, with security enforcing strict rules. According to Met Office forecasters, showers are to be the theme of the evening with several spells of heavy downpours set to leave fans sodden by the time the gig concludes at around 11pm. For those dreading the journey home, ScotRail confirmed extra carriages and trains will be added wherever possible in a bid to help fans travel to and from the gig with ease. Additional late-night services are also set to run from Edinburgh to Glasgow, Dundee, Dunblane, & Perth. For those heading to Haymarket after the show, ScotRail added: "Seeing @robbiewilliams later today? Please note Haymarket station will be much busier than usual. When the show ends, walk quickly back to Haymarket station if you can, and join the holding area on Haymarket Terrace where you'll be directed to the appropriate queue." The Angels singer shared a message to his fans only hours before doors opened. On Saturday morning, the singer shared a post on Instagram while performing with his band and wearing a Britpop T-shirt. He captioned the video: "See you tonight Edinburgh for BRITPOP Night 1." Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. Over 600 comments were left on the short clip. One fan said: "Have a brilliant time tonight!!! Can't wait to hear Rocket live next week! I'm practising keeping up with the lyrics in the verse without passing out." Another wrote: "Sooo excited. Bringing my boy for his first ever concert."
The National
2 days ago
- Science
- The National
Humanoid robots pose an ethical dilemma we've long prepared for
Earlier this week, an Edinburgh University lab exemplified the second option. Looking like a toad made from rubbery stickle bricks, it's a 'soft robot' – one that can (with a whiff of air pressure) walk out of its own 3D-manufacturing unit. They'll be useful for nuclear decommissioning, biomedicine and space exploration, says the lab. Great! Robots as curiously shaped facilitators of a cleaner, healthier, more ambitious world. Safely in the background. READ MORE: I've voiced ScotRail trains for 20 years and was replaced with AI without being told And then there are the humanoid robots (or HRs), currently cavorting all over your news feed. They're landing punches as Thai boxers in Hangzhou, China. They're playing badminton (admittedly with an extra two legs) in Zurich, Switzerland. A BMW factory, in the improbably named American town of Spartanburg, already has humanoid bipedal robots assembling parts on the production line (they're also starting in a Hyundai plant later this year). Chinese state-run warehouses in Shanghai have human operators manipulating HRs, getting them to fold T-shirts, make sandwiches and open doors, over and over again. All generating data they can learn from, to act effectively in the near future. Those who keep half an eye on radical technology may be a bit perplexed. Wasn't there some relief in the utter klutziness of robots, as they attempted to negotiate a few stairs, or turn a door knob? Didn't we share their pratfalls gleefully on social media – the bathos (if not hubris) that kept us relatively sane, in these accelerating times? Computers might thrash us at most cognitive tasks. But tying shoelaces, making pizza, wiping a child's nose? Not yet, and maybe not ever. Hail the embodied human, and their evolved physical capabilities! Well, there's a different track opening up. It's partly driven by the sci-fi imagination of the tech bros, East and West: most of these humanoid robots look like the rebellious droids in the 2004 movie I, Robot. But it's also an assumption that the new, actively-learning models of artificial intelligence can do for humanoid robots what they've done for language, visuals and coding. Which is to generate plausible and coherent behaviour in the physical world, as they generate the same for prose or images. Just to state the obvious: there's economic interest here. The target of these companies is a unit that can learn skills as required, flipping from task to task like a human worker. 'You can imagine a supply store has one, and that robot can be in the backroom depalletizing, cleaning, stocking shelves, checking inventory, just a huge range of things,' says Jonathan Hurst, co-founder and chief robot officer at Agility Robotics. Working 24/7, only stopping to be charged: 'That's where the real value comes in', concludes Hurst. READ MORE: Union slams Scottish companies using voice data without consent for new AI announcers The point of a humanoid-like machine seems obvious to most of these entrepreneurs. The world is already designed for humans, and maximum profitability will come from robots stepping competently and confidently into this environment. As the big business consultancies are predicting, the price for a working humanoid might descend to as low as $15,000 within the next few years, certainly lower as production scales up. That starts to become a viable business case for many enterprises – if the devices deliver on the performance promises currently being made. Let's assume (and it may be a major assumption) that physical robotics is on the same exponential curve as the computations of AI (and indeed directly rides on the latter's ascent). What that instantly opens up is a vast archive of myths and tropes about the fearful prospect of creating artificial humans, and how they'll live among us. We've been preparing for this ... READ MORE: From the editor: We're all sick of Farage. But we can't 'just ignore him' Greek mythology had Hephaestus making automatons – self-moving golden handmaidens with 'intelligence in their hearts'. Pygmalion the sculptor fell in love with his statue Galatea; Talos, a giant bronze automaton powered by ichor, guarded Crete. Across ancient India and China, still more defensive robots were imagined: the Buddhist text of Lokapannatti describes mechanical warriors that protected relics in subterranean cities. Back in Europe, the golem was raised to defend the Jewish ghettos. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein directly addresses our capacity to make humanoid subjects, and the ethics of the life we might share with them. And we mustn't forget that the term 'robot' itself comes from the Czech genius Karel Čapek, and his 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) – 'robota' being Czech for forced labour. So right at the core of this domain's name sits the main anxiety we have about it. What does it mean for us to create an entity that we intend will work (or fight) entirely on our behalf? It's one of the deeper, more civilisational arguments against a humanoid robot. Which is that it revives a master-slave framing from the worst of our past. An original cruelty of power that generates many others. The great auteur of human weirdness, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, articulated this well in his final movie, A.I. (posthumously realised by Steven Spielberg). The robot boy David – and we shouldn't forget the underlying Pinnochio reference – is eventually discarded: he was a substitute for a real boy, who eventually revives from his coma. Kubrick/Spielberg show how distorted human relations become – how resentful, harsh and violent – when these ever-more-perfect humanoid entities move among them. Their various roles of servitude do not protect them. The end of the movie delivers a severe judgement on human morality. The robot boy is rediscovered, by beautifully communal 'mechas', on an utterly drowned and terminated Earth. On David's request, the mechs revive a clone of the human 'mother' who pushed him out into the forest. They are able to share one last, gentle day together. READ MORE: How much has your MP claimed in expenses? See the full Scottish list here The movie never fails to break my heart. But given the ethical dilemma it presents – do we really want to be masters in a society of slaves, again? – we might hope that the humanoids keep failing to turn that doorknob. We really don't know what's coming. From the AI side, will developments in computation generate artificial consciousness, as well as artificial intelligence? By consciousness, I mean an entity which knows that it exists, experiences the world, has goals and desires and values. If that intentionality and interiority appears, and begins to talk with us, we may anticipate one of its explicit interests: the rights of robots, operating under conditions of servitude. How might we respond? I'd suggest A.I. the movie shows us how we shouldn't. Perhaps I'm operating in a very Western framework. As many scholars note, animist religions (whether Japanese or Chinese) do not sharply divide between the animate and inanimate. The robot in Japan is not necessarily monstrous, but can possess 'kokoro' (heart/mind). Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, flying about the comic strips of a traumatised Japan in the 1950s, was a great example of this. A moral child-robot with atomic powers, seeking justice. I duly note that the most-watched Netflix production this week is The Wild Robot. The machine ROZZUM (Unit 7134) lands on an island teeming with wildlife, to which it slowly begins to relate and co-exist with. Kept in a bubble from marauding, egoistic humans, Roz is able to establish a kinship with these fundamentally different entities, evoking the most profound ecological themes. Our sense of kinship with non-human animals should be obvious: the bass note of our responsibility to protect and honour the natural world. But should we prepare for kinship with these artificial entities? And should we ask whether casting them in humanoid form lays in more trouble than it's worth? Edinburgh's stickle brick frog is made from gel, wobbly but ready for its limited tasks. It may be a more tractable robot than the gleaming Optimals marching – or we may still hope, shuffling – out of Silicon Valley.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
OPINION - 'I'm devastated that AI stole my voice' ...Tech & Science Daily podcast
Listen here on your chosen podcast platform. Gayanne Potter told us that ScotRail are using her voice for their new AI train announcements without her permission. ScotRail unveiled their new AI announcer 'Iona' earlier this month, and Gayanne is urging them to change it. Gayanne explained that her voice was taken from a previous employer, Swedish company ReadSpeaker, and claims it was not made clear in her contract that they could use her voice again in the future. This episode includes responses from both ScotRail and ReadSpeaker. Also in this episode: -Disposable vapes are officially banned from Sunday, June 1st -New AI test could end 'postcode lottery' for 'game changer' prostate cancer drug -Drought declared in North West England -Japanese researchers say cats can indeed smell the difference between a stranger and their owner…
