Listening for a Lifeline: How Canadian AI Detects Suicide Risk in Speech
Canadian researchers use AI to analyze speech patterns and detect suicide risk early, offering new hope through life-saving voice analysis. Suppose a crisis call in the middle of the night. The other voice is a whisper, almost shaking with the pain. Their words may not tell it, but each shiver and silence tells a lot about some battle. Canadian scientists are now instructing computers to hear out those hints so as to transform speech into sources of hope. Using machine learning to detect the cry of a person in need, by noticing tone or rhythm and the choice of words, these innovators hope to notice the cry before it can reach a human counselor, and in some cases, before the human counselor can hear the person. In Montreal and elsewhere, organizations are teaching AI to notice the warning signs in our voices, of a close friend between the lines. A research carried out in Concordia University by a PhD student, Alaa Nfissi reveals how it works. The computer does not read but listens to al...