Meta has released an audio-only version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses that drops the camera entirely, offering Bluetooth audio, calls, and a voice AI assistant in Clubmaster and Burbank frame styles. A reviewer who tested the glasses over several days reported that no one noticed them being worn, since they look like ordinary eyewear, and found setup now includes more prominent privacy disclosures about how AI voice and visual data are handled.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-13
Alvin Sng, a software engineer at startup Factory AI, posted on X that rather than reading a book aloud to his newborn himself, he offered to play an audiobook, then proposed training a voice model of himself to narrate it. He captioned the exchange 'Parenting hits different when you work in AI'; the post has since been deleted. The anecdote follows earlier comments from OpenAI's Sam Altman about using ChatGPT and AI-generated podcasts in place of everyday parent-child conversation.
futurism.com
· 2026-10-08
A Tokyo court found that a TikTok account used AI to replicate the voice of veteran anime actor Kenjiro Tsuda in narration videos posted between July 2024 and late 2025, ruling this violated his publicity rights. The court declined to order removal of the videos since the anonymous account had already been deleted. Tsuda's legal team had argued the account's 200,000-plus followers were drawn by hearing a recognizable star's voice narrate lurid content, while TikTok countered the voice was merely generic.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-01
A CNET reviewer spent several months testing Amazon's Alexa Plus, Google's Gemini for Home and Apple's Siri AI for weather forecasting accuracy in a high-desert city with microclimates. The test found Alexa Plus gives the longest, most detailed responses—including wind, air quality and 'feels like' temperatures—but occasionally mispredicted rain and tended to overestimate high temperatures.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-01
Fideuram chairman Paolo Molesini was deceived by a fake WhatsApp message posing as Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina and a follow-up call using an AI-generated voice impersonating a law firm partner. Believing the request was legitimate, Fideuram wired €95 million to accounts in China and Hong Kong before staff spotted irregularities. Authorities in Italy, Portugal and China helped recover €53 million, and Molesini has since resigned.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-28
Google has launched Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS, new speech generation models supporting over 100 languages. The models ranked first and second respectively on Hume AI's Overall Quality Index, with Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS also topping Hume AI's Voice Design Benchmark and its accent modeling category. Google says the models improve on long-form content and dual-speaker screenplay control compared to the prior Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS.
blog.google
· 2026-09-23
New research indicates that scammers using AI-generated voices that mimic a target's own accent are more effective at deceiving victims than generic synthetic voices. The findings suggest that accent-matching adds a layer of perceived familiarity and trust that makes fraudulent calls more convincing.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-13
ZDNET tested the Comulytic Note Pro, a compact AI-powered voice recorder shaped like a stack of credit cards that pairs with an app to transcribe and organize meetings, memos, and dictation. The reviewer praised its microphone quality, battery life, and unobtrusive design, giving it 4 out of 5 stars overall.
zdnet.com
· 2026-08-29
More than 80 performers, including Matt Lucas, Hugh Bonneville, Siobhán McSweeney and singer Sandi Thom, have signed a letter urging the UK government to introduce legislation protecting performers from unauthorised AI voice cloning. The signatories argue current law fails to safeguard an artist's voice, face and identity as AI technology advances. The letter follows earlier warnings from legal experts that existing UK rules are outdated and cannot fully protect personal likeness or voice.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-08-28
Netflix has released a trailer for an upcoming game show, 'Wonka's The Golden Ticket,' in which contestants navigate a hazardous chocolate factory guided by an AI-recreated voice resembling Gene Wilder's iconic Willy Wonka. The trailer's unsettling tone has drawn comparisons to horror rather than family entertainment, sparking online discussion.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-08-26
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