Perhaps the best perk CEO Larry Page can get at Google is a new voice.
Caring employees actually built the vocally challenged CEO a synthetic voice, one of the benefits of working at a company that experiments on such a grand scale.
Google is known for its voice technology with services like speech-controlled search and translation tools. Its Google Now app features a soft-spoken feminine voice similar to Apple’s Siri voice assistant.
In a candid moment during the company’s shareholder meeting this week, Page revealed that his staff created a synthetic voice especially for him using the same technology.
“They’ve actually made one of these for me,” Page said at the conference while the technology was being explained to investors.
Page said he hasn’t tried his specially made synthetic voice, but it could come in handy. He has been through periods when his vocal cords have become paralyzed making it difficult — if not impossible — to speak.
He refrained from public speaking for months last year due to vocal cord paralysis, prompted by a rare thyroid condition.
Google did not return a request for comment.
