AI-Powered Text-to-Speech for Public Website
Accessibility
What it collects
- Website text content — page copy, headings, articles, and other written material published on the National Film Board's public website — submitted to Amazon Polly for conversion to speech.
Government of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- Run by
- National Film Board (NFB)
- Where
- No fixed location
- Kept
- Not stated by the Helpful Places.
- Shared with
- Not stated by the Helpful Places.
What it is for
AccessibilityThis system uses Amazon Polly to convert written text into spoken audio on the National Film Board's public website. It is primarily used by Government of Canada employees and makes website content accessible in audio form. The underlying speech synthesis service is operated by Amazon as a vendor on behalf of the National Film Board.
What it collects and what happens to it
Data taken in
- Website text content — page copy, headings, articles, and other written material published on the National Film Board's public website — submitted to Amazon Polly for conversion to speech.
Government of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
Processing
- Amazon Polly is a cloud-based neural text-to-speech service that synthesizes natural-sounding speech from text using deep learning models trained on human speech. It converts input text into audio output in a selected language and voice.
Government of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
What it does
- Amazon Polly generates synthetic speech audio from text input. A person initiates the request (e.g., by clicking a listen button on the website); the system produces the audio output autonomously.
Government of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
Outputs
- Synthesized audio speech output generated from website text content. The audio is not linked to any individual person and contains no personal information — it is a spoken rendering of publicly published web page text.
Government of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
Run by
- The National Film Board of Canada deploys the Amazon Polly speech synthesis service on its public website for use by Government of Canada employees.
Government of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
Built by
- Amazon provides the Polly text-to-speech service that underlies this deployment. The system was developed by the vendor and is delivered as an ongoing cloud service.
Government of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
Kept for
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Stored
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
How to read the colours
Can it identify you?
- Anonymized data
- Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
- Pseudonymous data
- Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
- Identifiable data
- The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.
Who completes the loop?
- Human decides
- This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
- Human executes
- This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
- Autonomous
- This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.
Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)National Film Board of Canada. AI and Algorithms Register entry 2526-NFB-ONF-004.
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI and Algorithms Register — Speech synthesis (2526-NFB-ONF-004)
- Register entryPublished by the Helpful Places. Reference f4c0d0c9. This disclosure was drafted with AI assistance.Schema: ai@2026-05-06-beta
What you can do
Ask about this system
Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.
Your rights
The Helpful Places has not listed specific rights for this system.
Risks and safeguards
No risks or safeguards have been published for this system yet.