From Amazon’s Alexa to Apple’s Siri, smart voice assistants are now a part of many people’s daily lives.
Now, the BBC has launched its own voice assistant, dubbed Beeb. Beeb was first announced back in August, but is now being rolled out to the public.
Grace Boswood, COO at BBC Design + Engineering, said: “We’re opening an early version – otherwise known as a beta – to UK-based members of Microsoft’s Windows Insider Programme, a community of people who regularly test out new technology.
“People in this programme will be helping us to improve Beeb by experimenting with features and generally putting the voice assistant through its paces. The next step will be bringing this beta version out to the general public in the near future.”
Beeb was developed in collaboration with Microsoft, and has a male voice with a northern accent.
Andy Webb, BBC’s head of product for voice and AI, told PA: “We’re really conscious of the sort of the problematic associations that exists between female voices and assistants, in that they’re sort of deemed to be being used in that sort of subservient way so we really wanted to make … a point and to put a male voice in there at the start.
“Secondly, it’s not from down south, it’s from up north. We wanted to make a break from that traditional southern RP (Received Pronunciation) that is traditional with all broadcasters.
“What we really find is, when it’s warm and friendly and kind of welcoming and it’s easy on the ears … it actually becomes quite pleasant to listen to, so we worked hard on representing the diversity of our audience much more by making it from outside of that London southern RP.”
Beeb is designed to help users in a range of ways, whether it’s getting live and on-demand radio, news or local weather updates.
The BBC has also worked with the writer of several popular BBC shows to give Beeb a bit of personality.
Ms Boswood explained: “Ask it for a joke, and you’ll hear material from BBC comedy writers. Ask Beeb specifically for a Mash Report joke and you’ll get just that.
(Image: Getty Images)
“It will also help you to get some more knowledge under your belt, with lots of quirky facts selected by comedy panel quiz show QI’s ‘elves’, the same team from the No Such Thing as a Fish podcast.
“So, if you ask Beeb to give you a QI fact, you’ll hear from Sandi Toksvig herself, who will inspire you with her dry wit and deep knowledge.”
While the BBC highlights that this is a very early version of Beeb, it says that the assistant will soon be able to do more and will be available on more platforms.
Ms Boswood added: “Once it’s available, we’ll still be adding new features in the coming weeks and months – and your feedback will be an important part of how we decide what to add and when.”
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How to try Beeb for yourself
To try Beeb out for yourself, you’ll need to be a UK-based member of Microsoft’s Windows Insider Programme.
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll need to update your PC to the Windows 10 May 2020 Update.
Then, download the ‘Beeb BETA’ app from the Microsoft Store here, and sign in with your BBC account.
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