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I have a comment and a question: The comment: I noticed that your demo video also had "emotional" video layered on top of the dialogue. This could be considere

I have a comment and a question: The comment: I noticed that your demo video also had "emotional" video layered on top of the dialogue. This could be considered manipulative; perhaps consider sharing a naked version so we could attempt to interpret the emotion based solely on the text to speech engine. The question: You mention you met at EF. I was wondering if, beyond bringing you together, you found EF to be worth the cost of admission?

jasonlingx 6y ago
> The comment: I noticed that your demo video also had "emotional" video layered on top of the dialogue. This could be considered manipulative; perhaps consider sharing a naked version so we could attempt to interpret the emotion based solely on the text to speech engine. Close your eyes
- fossuser 6y ago
  The music is still there and has an obvious effect. I thought the demo was impressive, but these things do seem like an effort to distract from (or more accurately bolster the effect of) the core technology. Though maybe the right call since this is less a strict technical demo and more a way to drive interest/marketing. The 'high levels of expressivity' comment was more of a flag to me, it's a meaningless phrase alone but it's suggested as an obvious answer. It feels like a mysterious answer [0]. I recognize though this is a marketing video, the core tech demo is cool, and I'm probably being unfairly critical. Flags like that make me more skeptical than I would otherwise be by default. [0]: https://www.lesswrong.com/s/5uZQHpecjn7955faL/p/6i3zToomS86oj9bS6 https://www.lesswrong.com/s/5uZQHpecjn7955faL/p/6i3zToomS86o...
- chrismorgan 6y ago
  And the music. Can’t remove that as easily as the picture.
sonantic 6y ago
Hi there - thanks for both your comment and question! As others have said, this is first and foremost a marketing video aimed at attracting target customers. We've got additional clean samples (without background music) further down on our homepage and we plan on adding even more on their own subpage of the site in the future. We've also done a few technical demos at conferences over the past year and will continue to do so. We did meet at EF and it was totally worth it! There is no cost of admission for EF, they actually pay you to complete the program! Granted the monetary funds they provide could be a heck of a lot less than what you are earning at a full time job, so everyone's opportunity cost is different. EF's biggest selling point is their world-class network of highly ambitious individuals, so if you're interested in founding a company (pre-team / pre-idea) I would absolutely recommend looking into it.

jasonlingx 6y ago

> The comment: I noticed that your demo video also had "emotional" video layered on top of the dialogue. This could be considered manipulative; perhaps consider sharing a naked version so we could attempt to interpret the emotion based solely on the text to speech engine. Close your eyes

fossuser 6y ago
The music is still there and has an obvious effect. I thought the demo was impressive, but these things do seem like an effort to distract from (or more accurately bolster the effect of) the core technology. Though maybe the right call since this is less a strict technical demo and more a way to drive interest/marketing. The 'high levels of expressivity' comment was more of a flag to me, it's a meaningless phrase alone but it's suggested as an obvious answer. It feels like a mysterious answer [0]. I recognize though this is a marketing video, the core tech demo is cool, and I'm probably being unfairly critical. Flags like that make me more skeptical than I would otherwise be by default. [0]: https://www.lesswrong.com/s/5uZQHpecjn7955faL/p/6i3zToomS86oj9bS6 https://www.lesswrong.com/s/5uZQHpecjn7955faL/p/6i3zToomS86o...
chrismorgan 6y ago
And the music. Can’t remove that as easily as the picture.

sonantic 6y ago

Hi there - thanks for both your comment and question! As others have said, this is first and foremost a marketing video aimed at attracting target customers. We've got additional clean samples (without background music) further down on our homepage and we plan on adding even more on their own subpage of the site in the future. We've also done a few technical demos at conferences over the past year and will continue to do so. We did meet at EF and it was totally worth it! There is no cost of admission for EF, they actually pay you to complete the program! Granted the monetary funds they provide could be a heck of a lot less than what you are earning at a full time job, so everyone's opportunity cost is different. EF's biggest selling point is their world-class network of highly ambitious individuals, so if you're interested in founding a company (pre-team / pre-idea) I would absolutely recommend looking into it.