I'm building various prototypes for VR training simulations using Inworld. But they also use the cascaded approach. Also, I am building customer service agent product which we would love to add voice to but whisper and eleven labs (and others) are just too slow. Is tincan available via API?
If you're looking for an alternative you should check out www.vexbook.com - the calibre of people is higher. It's over Skype or Facetime so it works with any smartphone.
Yes. Most of the people who work in an very HFT firm will be developers and ops people who are good at integrating cutting edge technologies. An understanding of how the exchanges operate is useful but knowledge of finance isn't really required.