Facebook has announced that it will pay select users who agree to record their voice to improve its speech recognition technology. According to The Verge, the social networking giant company will pay select users to record snippets of audio through a new programme called “Pronunciations in its Viewpoints market research app.

If you qualify to be part of the programme, you’ll be able to record the phrase “Hey Portal,” followed by the first name of a friend from your friends” list.

“You’ll be able to do this with the names of up to 10 friends, and you have to record each statement twice,” the report said .

The company’s announcement comes at a time when several tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have paused their audio transcription programmes after reports emerged that third-party contractors were listening to audio recordings. Amazon now lets users opt-out of audio recording “review.”

Although one user will be able to make only $5, this is an interesting approach by Facebook to improve its artificial intelligence-driven transcription skills.

Facebook is recruiting users to be part of its “Pronunciation” program connected to the company’s Viewpoints market research app.. The $5 payment is earned via points collected within the Viewpoints app, and the program is open to U.S. users over the age of 18 who have, at least, 75 connections on Facebook. 

People can opt-out of the Pronunciation program — offered through the site's recently launched market research app — at any time, Facebook spokesperson Catherine Anderson told Axios.  By using the recordings to train AI that powers speech recognition and transcription in Facebook products — like Portal, Siri and Messenger — Facebook can better understand how names and other words are pronounced, she said.

 The company says that users' collected voice recordings will not be connected to Facebook profiles, and activity gathered in its market research app will not be shared on Facebook or its other services without permission, the Verge reports.