Photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash
If there's a silver lining to any of the madness happening around the world right now, it's that people and technology are entwining in ways no-one could have predicted. We've seen Mercedes F1 engineers partner with medics to build thousands of improved ventilators, IBM link arms with the White House to provide COVID-19 researchers with supercomputing power, and the Chinese government use voice-enabled elevators in public spaces to minimize the spread of the virus.
Voice technology, in particular, has become increasingly valuable in everything from diagnosing the virus by the sound of your voice to keeping people entertained at home. Now, chatbots are stepping into the battle to keep thousands of frightened people informed around the clock.