These new "accents"

[YukiSuter]

I'm genuinely curious who at FSDT thought that getting someone with an american accent to voice the "japanese" accent by simply replacing Ls with Rs was a good idea?
The "accent" that FSDT just published for GSX genuinely feels like a casually racist parody.
If anyone wants to see for themselves and owns GSX pro, go to "Addon Manager\couatl\GSX\sounds\en-jp" and look for yourself.

It even gets to the rediculous point of "welcome" apparently being replaced with "wercome". Which isnt even how the Ls to Rs part of Japanese speaking works. There was clearly no thought put into it and not even the slightest google search. A youtube search on "Japanese people speaking english" and a 2 min listen to a video would've indicated just how wrong these sounds are.

[virtuali]

All new crew voices are AI-generated, using voice cloning from people of various accents speaking English.

[YukiSuter]

My apologies, perhaps I should've made myself clearer. I am talking about the cabin crew voices. I actually quite like the ground crew voices you've done such as the pushback ones, so I commend you and the team for those.

It is evident however that the en-jp cabin crew ones were clearly either done in a different way or with error. The cabin crew voices for other accents appear to actually be completely fine and actually in the accent of the country.

Though I do think your response of

All new crew voices are AI-generated, using voice cloning from people of various accents speaking English.

is very irresponsible and demonstrates exactly why due diligence is required when using AI on things like this. The phrase "well AI was used" is not a satisfactory answer to why a racist stereotypical voice was added to the program.

[virtuali]

My apologies, perhaps I should've made myself clearer. I am talking about the cabin crew voices.

That's exactly what I was referring to.

I actually quite like the ground crew voices you've done such as the pushback ones, so I commend you and the team for those.

That's AI as well.

The phrase "well AI was used" is not a satisfactory answer to why a racist stereotypical voice was added to the program.

We don't have much control how voice cloning works, and neither have much ability to know how "offensive" it sounds.

[YukiSuter]

The phrase "well AI was used" is not a satisfactory answer to why a racist stereotypical voice was added to the program.

We don't have much control how voice cloning works, and neither have much ability to know how "offensive" it sounds.

Right, so you dont have control over how it works, fine. You do however have the ability to know how offensive it sounds. It is very clearly an american accent so even if it didnt use racist stereotypes it is still wrong, and in a very obvious way.

You're saying your team used AI without knowing whether the accents were accurate? For context I did not need to tell my non-asian mates (who I got to sanity check myself) for them to realise that it was offensive.

Here is reddit post on r/MicrosoftFlightSim with everyone agreeing. If you want to go ahead and say everyone on here can only tell its offensive because they are Japanese go for it, but that would be one hell of an assumption.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/comments/1dc2bsb/the_new_gsx_boarding_sounds_come_with_a_variety/

[virtuali]

You do however have the ability to know how offensive it sounds.

That's precisely what I said I don't:

"neither have much ability to know how "offensive" it sounds"

Which means, I wouldn't even know how to fix it, and when it stops being "offensive".

It is very clearly an american accent so even if it didnt use racist stereotypes it is still wrong, and in a very obvious way.

Very obvious to you maybe, as native speaker, and it doesn't sound very american at all to me (and I guess to most americans), considering the voice is cloned from a japanese person speaking english.

I'll make an example, please don't take it again as a "racist" example, and try not to abuse of that world, which seems to be a catch-all buzzword for anything you don't like. I'm an Italian native speaker, and I don't THINK I sound like Super Mario when I speak English. Problem is, to English-native speakers, I probably DO sound like Super Mario, even it I might be fully convinced I'm not, and my italian friends might agree with me. Problem is, is not for us to decide how we sound when we speak English: only native English speakers can say that.

So, instead of accusing an AI of being "racist", while you don't act proactively and try to source a real voice ? Some users DID helped with accents already, wouldn't be the first time.

[YukiSuter]

My issue is more that you guys actually did some great Japanese voices for stuff like the pushback tugs. Those sound great, but I'm not sure what was done differently about the cabin crew sounds but there are virtually no differences between the en-JP and en-US variants other than the pronunciations of Ls and Rs.

Listen to the first phrase "May I see your boarding pass please". Everything before "please" is so easily an American accent.

And whilst I agree with your "not everyone can recognise a racist stereotype" argument, are you saying everyone in the comments of that reddit thread are native speakers? Did you even read the end of my previous post?

You do however have the ability to know how offensive it sounds.

Very obvious to you maybe, as native speaker, and it doesn't sound very american at all to me (and I guess to most americans), considering the voice is cloned from a japanese person speaking english.

If it is cloned from a Japanese person speaking english, then their level of english is such that there is no accent/american accent, in which case they're a terrible voice to clone because then whats the point? If an italian voice actor had a perfect British accent are they a good model for your "italian accent'ed" english?

You simply cannot say from an accent and stereotype perspective that neither are true, when you have enough people saying that it is.

I'm not here to dump on you or GSX, I've bought and owned every version since basically day 1, and I appreciate the work you do. Which is why I'm even more surprised that when someone informed you that your AI generated voices are offensive, you took the route of "it was ai not me" followed by "how am I supposed to know that" and "well go find your own voice actor".

I'd be fine with you telling me to "go find my own voice actor" or "how am I supposed to know if its offensive" if it wasnt a payware product. Freeware sure, but why do I have to have a product I have paid for cause offense to me everytime I want to use it (you don't give the option to turn regional accents off).

I understand wanting to defend something you made, but when someone who has spent money on your software tells you that it is offensive, that is not the appropriate reaction.

EDIT: I'm not calling you racist by any means, though I do think my use of the word is in fact justified. (strictly describing the stereotype used and nothing else)

[virtuali]

And whilst I agree with your "not everyone can recognise a racist stereotype" argument, are you saying everyone in the comments of that reddit thread are native speakers? Did you even read the end of my previous post?

That's not what I'm saying, of course. In fact, I'm saying basically the opposite, which is because they are not native English speakers, they can't really judge of they sound to English speakers.

If it is cloned from a Japanese person speaking english, then their level of english is such that there is no accent/american accent, in which case they're a terrible voice to clone because then whats the point? If an italian voice actor had a perfect British accent are they a good model for your "italian accent'ed" english?

You are still missing the point: I wouldn't be able to judge it that particular Japanese person speaking in English would sound like that when cloned.

Which is why I'm even more surprised that when someone informed you that your AI generated voices are offensive, you took the route of "it was ai not me" followed by "how am I supposed to know that" and "well go find your own voice actor".

Which I'm afraid they are the only reasonable explanations. So I guess we'll have to find a better voice actor or possibly a different AI voice.

[baranismen]

I can't say the same for the Turkish version as well. Its actually pretty accurate, our very own distinctive English accent is well-reflected if the voices used in Turkish airports are AI-generated.

But can't we add some native voices during boarding, like Hallo, Merhaba, Konichiwa, etc.. There's one I actually hear in Turkish as "İyi Öğledensonra", which should be translated as "good afternoon", however its a bit wrong, we don't that phrase, we instead say "Tünaydın"

By the way, @virtuali, if you guys need any sort of assistance with Turkish localization/voicing, I'd be most happy to assist you guys.

[virtuali]

I can't say the same for the Turkish version as well. Its actually pretty accurate, our very own distinctive English accent is well-reflected if the voices used in Turkish airports are AI-generated.

If you are referring to the GSX Pushback or Deice crew, they are not AI, they are real people from Turkey who generously offered their time to do the voices.  The flight attendants "Hello" sounds with a Turkish accents, instead, are AI generated, like every other flight attendants voice.

[baranismen]

I can't say the same for the Turkish version as well. Its actually pretty accurate, our very own distinctive English accent is well-reflected if the voices used in Turkish airports are AI-generated.

If you are referring to the GSX Pushback or Deice crew, they are not AI, they are real people from Turkey who generously offered their time to do the voices.  The flight attendants "Hello" sounds with a Turkish accents, instead, are AI generated, like every other flight attendants voice.

Yeah, pb and deice voices are quite real, i know it. I actually referred to the boarding voices, which are the same whereever i go.

[virtuali]

Yeah, pb and deice voices are quite real, i know it. I actually referred to the boarding voices, which are the same whereever i go.

Boarding voices are not linked to the airport but, instead, to the alrline nationality, assuming it has been recognized from the icao_airline parameter of the aircraft.cfg AND it's recognized as a supported airline for which GSX crew has a custom uniform. Lacking any of the two requirements, the Crew will have generic uniforms with a generic US English accent.