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GoogleGranted patentAudio & voiceInterest 6/10

Google patents voice assistants that change speaking style based on your tone

This patent describes a system where a voice assistant listens to the pitch, speed, and volume of your voice to decide how to respond. It uses a large language model to generate an answer that matches a specific style, such as calm or energetic, even if you did not explicitly ask for that style.

Why it mattersThis could make voice conversations feel more natural by allowing the assistant to mirror your emotional tone rather than sounding the same every time.

In the filing’s own words

As part of an ongoing dialog between a user and an automated assistant, processor(s) can receive a natural language (NL) based input from the user during a turn of the ongoing dialog, obtain style signal(s) for the turn, and determine, based on the style signal(s), a NL based response style that is not specified in the NL based input. Further, the processor(s) can process, using a large language model (LLM), the NL based input and a NL based response style tag for the NL based response style to generate LLM output, determine, based on the LLM output, a NL based response in the NL based response style, and cause the NL based response to be rendered. In some implementations, a LLM behavior controller is utilized to determine the NL based response style, whereas in other implementations, the LLM is fine-tuned to determine the NL based response style.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: as part of an ongoing spoken dialog between a user of a client device and an automated assistant that is accessible at the client device: receiving spoken natural language (NL) based input from the user of the client device during a given dialog turn of the ongoing spoken dialog between the user of the client device and the automated assistant; determining, based on a first set of prosodic properties of the spoken NL based input, one or more style signals that are specific to the given dialog turn of the ongoing spoken dialog between the user of the client device and the automated assistant; processing, using a large language model (LLM) behavior controller, the one or more style signals to determine a given NL based response style, from among a plurality of disparate NL based response styles, that is not specified by the spoken NL based input but is to be utilized in responding to the spoken NL based input; processing, using a LLM, the spoken NL based input and a given NL based response style tag that is associated with the given NL based response style to generate LLM output, wherein the LLM output comprises a probability distribution over a sequence of words or phrases; determining, based on the LLM output, an audible NL based response that is in the given NL based response style and that is responsive to the spoken NL based input, wherein determining the audible NL based response that is in the given NL based response style and that is responsive to the spoken NL based input based on the LLM output comprises: biasing, based on the given NL based response style, selection of one or more of the words or phrases, from the LLM output, for inclusion in the audible NL based response; and causing the audible NL based response to be rendered at the client device, wherein the audible NL based response is synthesized using a second set of prosodic properties that are associated with the given NL based response style, and wherein the given NL based response style is dynamically adapted between two or more of the plurality of disparate NL based response styles throughout the ongoing spoken dialog.

Facts

Company
Google (GOOGLE LLC)
Official title
Controlling a style of large language model(s) during ongoing dialog(s) through utilization of natural language based response style tag(s)
Patent number
US12748924B2
Application number
18120216
Filed
Mar 10, 2023
Granted
Sep 29, 2026
Inventors
3
Claims
17

Classified under

G06F 40/35 Physics & computingG10L 15/063 Physics & computingG10L 15/1807 Physics & computingG10L 15/1815 Physics & computingG10L 15/197 Physics & computingG10L 15/22 Physics & computing

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.