Anonymous Real-Time Speech (ARTS) Program Proposer's Day Notice

UPDATE 6/23/23: See program draft technical description IARPA ARTS Proposers’ Day: Tuesday, June 27, 2023, from 9:30am to 5:00pm EDT REGISTRATION: Participants must register by Thursday, June 22, 2023, at 5PM EDT. Same day registrations will not be accepted. The link to register is: https://www.client-meeting.net/arts-proposers-day Questions about this announcement can be emailed to: [email protected] OVERVIEW: The purpose of the Anonymous Real-Time Speech (ARTS) Program is to develop novel systems that will modify spontaneous speech in real-time to protect an individual’s privacy. Countless electronics in modern life, like smart phones, digital assistants, televisions, remote controls, and even appliances, have microphones that are always listening for speech signals, using voice driven technologies to interact with people. Recorded speech contains a wealth of personal, sensitive information that can be exploited by privacy threats such as biometric recognition, background profiling, and emotional screening; a person’s speech can reveal not only their identity, but also static traits, such as dialect, gender, and age, as well as dynamic traits, such as fear, stress, and anger. The ARTS program aims to research and develop novel methods that will anonymize conversational speech without degrading usability. The capabilities developed in this program will overcome threats to privacy, such as speaker identification software, human evaluation of static traits, and automated classification of dynamic traits. The program desires novel software-based systems suitable for conversations, with the transformed speech that is understandable, sounds natural, and operates in real-time.