Voice Activated AI: Training Audio Recognition Models

Actua's AI Series - Activity 7

In this activity, participants will train a machine listening program to accomplish a classification task. They will explore a pre-trained audio classifier before using Google’s Teachable Machine to train their own audio-based classification model to recognize certain keywords.

If you’re accessing this activity directly, did you know there are eight other activities in this series up on our website? These activities also follow a space exploration narrative when done in order. It is recommended to complete the activities in order but they can also be done on their own.

If you find yourself unfamiliar with any of the AI concepts and terminology introduced in these activities, please refer to our AI Glossary. For more information about Artificial Intelligence and how to incorporate it into your classroom, we suggest exploring our AI Handbook.

Here we go:

You and your group mates are astronauts and scientists aboard the Actua Orbital Station. Unfortunately, your station just got bombarded by magnetic rays and your electronics have begun to shut down! The only one who can save you is the station’s AI, DANN. DANN stands for Dedicated Actua Neural Network, and it’s gone a little loopy. Brush up on your technical skills, learn about AI, and save yourself and your crewmates!

You’ve managed to reinitialize DANN’s audio core using your knowledge in “What Machines See: Digging into Machine Vision”, but when you asked it to open a door, it made you a milkshake instead. It looks like DANN’s audio core might have sustained more damage than we thought. DANN’s audio recognition model is listening to us, but it isn’t understanding what it’s hearing. You need to retrain its audio processing skills so you can give them commands. Once we’re sure it’s fixed, we can move on to DANN’s morality system in Ethics in AI: Don’t Let DANN Turn Evil”!

Activity Write Up

Voice Activated AI

Related Resource

Educators AI Handbook

Looking for more information about Artificial Intelligence education? Check out our AI Handbook for educators.

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Related Resource

Artificial Intelligence Activities Glossary

If you find yourself unfamiliar with any of the words in this activity, our AI Glossary is here to help!

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