Tone of voice

US advertisers have been given details of the latest money-making scheme from BBC News - automatic audio versions of text stories, taken from BBC Online content, and targetted at an individual's tastes and interests.

‘Project Songbird’ is looking to launch at the end of this year; the audio will be 'free', but with embedded adverts. Software will learn the patterns of readers and serve up recommended content based on user preferences.  Krystal Bowden, the director of BBC StoryWorks, said "We know [audio] is really important for our audiences and we are looking to really hone our technology around that so we're building something that's going to be really useful for our readers but done in a way where advertisers will want to align themselves to that.”

The team is currently experimenting on getting the right voices for the service."You don't want an AI voice that is just reading the news in a way that's not sensitive – that's hugely important to the BBC,” said Bowden. “A huge part of our research and development of this tool will be ensuring it's done in a way that is appropriate for the stories being read.”