Comment by jeroenhd

The company lists its reason for being on their website (https://www.sanas.ai/about):

> Say 'Hi' to Raul > > A friend and fellow Stanford engineering student, we started Sanas for him. > > During school, he was forced to take a leave of absence and return home to Nicaragua. He started looking for jobs with high English proficiency. But, as he hadn't matriculated yet, he only had his high school diploma. With those credentials, the highest paying job he could find was in a call center. > > Working there he was faced with daily bias associated with his accent. He was verbally abused and discriminated against over the phone. And found himself underperforming at a job for which he was vastly overqualified. Unsurprisingly, he decided to leave the job after a few months. > > Knowing he wasn't alone, we started Sanas to ensure people around the world could take back the power of their own voice.

I don't know if this is real or just something they made up but I get where they're coming from. Call centres have to deal with tons of abuse and accents are easy pickings for the racists and other horrible people.

This solution doesn't try to do anything racist; it's a simple, practical solution to avoid a very specific type of hate and toxicity some people encounter during their day job. It's not saying "start speaking anglo-saxon, white, protestant, male English", it's "let's try not to give racists any fuel".

Honestly, I think the solution doesn't solve anything. The end result sounds computerized and fake. Even if it didn't, it's just a step back. People who abuse call centre workers shouldn't be treated with satin gloves to avoid triggering their sensibilities, they should be dealt with professionally. With products like these, companies can avoid having to fire customers or employees by preventing incidents.