The JASPER project was an early voice project that is great for understanding the basics of how a voice ‘engine’ works.
If you are truly interested in learning about A.I. and for example understand Python packages, installing this on a Raspberry Pi is a useful exercise and fun way to make some voice driven automation in your home or office.
Why is this useful for learning A.I.?
Drill in on the Voice-to-text engines and how they are working. Notice how you can ‘tune them’. You don’t’ even need to totally understand what is happening, but this is a great way to dig in on a weekend and start to see how these ‘engines’ work. We really enjoyed playing with Carnegie Mellon’s Pocketsphinx.