Sarah Bell, associate professor of digital media in the College of Science and Arts gained national recognition recently when her book Vox Ex Machina was listed on the New Yorker’s “Best Books We’ve Read This Week.” The book details the development of key voice synthesis technologies across the 20th century and factors that influenced their creation.
Bell’s exploration of the topic goes far deeper than a simple history of how these technologies were created, also exploring public response to the tech and asking whether talking machines are good for us.
“We were already primed for voice assistants before Siri and Alexa, but that doesn’t mean they work very well for us.”
Vox Ex Machina is as much about the people creating and using voice synthesis as it is about the technology itself, and this research concept began very close to home for Bell.
“I became interested in voice synthesis because of my kids, who, as teenagers, were using voice synthesis software to create music,” she said. “This was before Siri. I was interested in how this group of American kids related to the Japanese character of the software and expressed themselves through its voice.”
The original concept has gone through several iterations, originally as Bell’s PhD dissertation. Rather than explore the use of voice synthesis in music, Vox Ex Machina ultimately focuses on broader consumer deployments of voice synthesis.
“I study sociotechnical systems, usually from a historical perspective, and I tend to be interested in technologies when they are introduced to a consumer market. At that point they are rarely the ‘ideal’ that early developers had in mind,” said Bell.
Bell was “stunned” at the book’s mention in the New Yorker’s “Best Books” list, and delighted when historian Jill Lepore discussed it in her article about chatbots earlier this month.
“She’s one of my favorite writers, so I’m still pinching myself that she liked the book,” Bell said.
The College of Sciences and Arts is a global center of academic excellence in the sciences, humanities, and arts for a technological world. Our teacher-scholar model is a foundation for experiential learning, innovative research and scholarship, and civic leadership. The College offers 33 bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences, chemistry, humanities, kinesiology and Integrative physiology, mathematical sciences, physics, psychology and human factors, social sciences, and visual and performing arts. We are home to Michigan Tech’s pre-health professions and ROTC programs. The College offers 24 graduate degrees and certificates. We conduct approximately $12 million in externally funded research in health and wellness, sustainability and resiliency, and the human-technology frontier.
Follow the College on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and the CSA blog. Questions? Contact us at csa@mtu.edu.