Chinese researchers have released the world’s first open-source text-to-speech (TTS) model that unifies more than 20 Arabic dialects in an AI framework, a move poised to expand China’s technological influence in the Middle East, according to analysts. Led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s X-LANCE Lab – one of China’s top audiovisual and language processing research entities – the model is named Habibi, meaning “my dear” in Arabic. In presenting their findings, the research team spearheaded by...