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Computer (voice) as Host/"Talent"

NPR posted this related story over the weekend:

Send in the clones: Using artificial intelligence to digitally replicate human voices​

www.npr.org

Send in the clones: Using artificial intelligence to digitally replicate human voices

Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, it's never been easier or more affordable to make a perfect facsimile of a human voice: a celebrity, a world leader or even a public-radio reporter.
www.npr.org www.npr.org
For a basic conversational build, all a customer has to do is record themselves saying a bunch of scripted lines for roughly an hour. And that's about it. "We extract 10 to 15 minutes of net recordings for a basic build," says Speech Morphing founder and CEO Fathy Yassa.
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"We can make you apologetic, we can make you promotional, we can make you act like you're in the theater," Yassa says. "We can make you sing, eventually, though we're not yet there."
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The technology has given actor Val Kilmer, who lost his voice owing to throat cancer a few years ago, the chance to reclaim something approaching his former vocal powers. It's enabled film directors, audiobook creators and game designers to develop characters without the need to have live voice talent on hand, as in the movie Roadrunner, where an AI was trained on Anthony Bourdain's extensive archive of media appearances to create a digital double of the late chef and TV personality's voice.
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AFAIK, this hasn't been mentioned so far - maybe a regional accent could be added if a computer voice was used nationally as a form of voice tracking (the computer voice could be given different names in different regions).


Kirk Bayne
 
As is the case with most all technologies, as time moves along this one will become more sophisticated, intuitive for end-users to operate and much less expensive. As others have suggested earlier in this discussion thread, if a radio station or company thinks they can cut costs by going this route rather than the ongoing expense of hiring voice talent, they will. While nothing is certain, this could (operative word) be the next logical step after computer automation, voice tracking and the like.
 
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A locally-operated cluster in my area runs periodic weather forecasts on air using very realistic, albeit still robotic Text-to-Speech voices. They even give the "forecasters" full names. I actually didn't notice this until I heard the voice reporting current weather conditions at 3 in the morning; it was then that I listened closer and realized it was a computer talking.
 
Kelly A said:
Sure, and your average TV or radio station would want to spend the time training and writing scripts for a synthetic voice every day? Answer: No, they wouldn't.
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presario425 said:
A locally-operated cluster in my area runs periodic weather forecasts on air using very realistic, albeit still robotic Text-to-Speech voices. They even give the "forecasters" full names. I actually didn't notice this until I heard the voice reporting current weather conditions at 3 in the morning; it was then that I listened closer and realized it was a computer talking.
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@presario425 Any chance that they are using Natural Readers website/app? There is about 40 realistic voices in dozens of accents, and I have to admit, I find it very useful. @Kelly A Would I want to train it to do all day shifts? No, but it's useful in the shorthand. :)
 
I wonder if this Bell Labs demo influenced the song selection in the 2001 movie when the HAL9000 is being mostly shut down?


Kirk Bayne
 
Of interest:
Here come the voice clones:
iHeart to use voice cloning AI to translate podcasts
iHeartMedia’s plan to use Veritone’s voice-cloning technology for its podcast platform has some radio industry observers asking the obvious questions: How good does it sound and is broadcast radio far behind?
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One veteran broadcast engineer said Veritone’s voice cloning product is exactly the sort of tech breakthrough that media are quickly adopting as the industry embraces cost-saving measures, and could at the very least bring a more centralized approach to commercial production and staffing.
Observers familiar with this technology say some of the services on news websites are becoming good enough to be “almost indiscernible from real human voices.”
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Awhile back Google did a beta test of an app for restaurants that would handle phone reservations. The synthesized voice responded with human-sounding replies like, "We can give you, um, a table, at, let's see, ahhh, 7:30 pm. Is that okay?"

I don't know if it ever got off the ground because these days most people know how to book online.
 
www.fox5ny.com

An AI-powered rapper? What you should know as a TikTok-famous virtual artist is signed by a record label

An announcement by Capitol Records to sign a virtual artist has generated some level of controversy, as well as curiosity over musicians that do not exist in flesh and blood. Here's what you need to know about virtual artists, and the controversies surrounding them.
www.fox5ny.com www.fox5ny.com
^^^
Officials also say they believe their technology could allow them to eventually ditch human performers altogether.


Kirk Bayne
 
Yesterday I heard a commercial voiced by text-to-speech synthesis. It was pretty good TTS, but I could still pick up on its odd traits. But oddly, the part at the end where they give out the phone number was voiced by a real person.
 
With "AI" (doesn't really exist) and automation gaining ground look at the condition of radio in general. Some niches still doing well (specific subject talkies, live sports etc.) but unless you listen to "jukebox" radio you've got to be very disappointed at what radio has become. The last generation doesn't even know what radio is let alone listen to it.
 
landtuna said:
How do you know it was "reading" vs recorded?
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It sounded like an automated, computerized AI voice reading a script, with a few slight glitches here and there. The voice itself sounded mostly normal, but some of the words and cadences were just a bit off.

Sort of like a lot of the YT vids that came out right after the Ukraine War started -- there were a lot of YT channels that opened up, military related, all read by AI voices. You could tell it was a computerized voice reading a script.

This one I heard on the radio sounded the same way.
 
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