New Books Network From Hal to Siri: How Computers Learned to Speak
May 19, 2025
Benjamin Lindquist, a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University and author of "The Art of Text to Speech," dives into the intriguing evolution of computer speech. He discusses the backstory of HAL 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and its impact on computer science. Listeners will learn about early talking computers, the surprising journey behind the IBM mainframe that famously sang "Daisy Bell," and why Stephen Hawking’s phonemic voice didn't make it into Siri. Lindquist highlights the fascinating interplay between analog and digital technologies in speech synthesis.
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Kubrick Inspired by Bell Labs
- Stanley Kubrick included HAL's singing of "Daisy Bell" in 2001: A Space Odyssey after visiting Bell Labs.
- He was inspired by the early computer speech synthesis project he witnessed there.
Analog Computing's Role in Speech
- Analog computing models continuous, analogous relationships rather than discrete states.
- Many early speech synthesis efforts relied on these analog models to simulate human speech.
Painting Sound to Synthesize Speech
- Early researchers painted sound patterns to recreate speech using the sound spectrograph and pattern playback.
- Pierre Delattre improvised painted spectrograms to discover rules underlying speech production.
