4 ms·

This Youtube channel has lots of other great examples of whats possible with voice synthesis today: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRt-fquxnij9wDnFJnpPS2Q htt

This Youtube channel has lots of other great examples of whats possible with voice synthesis today: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRt-fquxnij9wDnFJnpPS2Q https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRt-fquxnij9wDnFJnpPS2Q Some of my favorites include Sinatra singing ABBA's Dancing Queen [1], six presidents rapping the NWA classic [2], and Milton Friedman rapping 50's P.I.M.P. [3] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo_w4KGifug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo_w4KGifug [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAZVp-n-5TM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAZVp-n-5TM [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUYMvuNIas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUYMvuNIas

adventured 6y ago
I'm struggling to understand how they're great examples. They sound absolutely atrocious and nowhere near believable. They sound really, really bad, like something an amateur with zero editing experience could put together with cheap equipment. They're so bad they're difficult to listen to, especially the Sinatra one.
- akiselev 6y ago
  This sounds like a GPT3 response :) Note I said "great examples of what's possible today" not "great examples of JFK recording NWA's Fuck the Police".
  - adventured 6y ago
    > This sounds like a GPT3 response :) If you're going to try to insult someone, own it and leave off the smiley. Don't hide behind that weak passive aggressiveness.
    - whatshisface 6y ago
      I think the team behind this comment thread accidentally substituted the GPT instance tuned for Reddit for the one tuned for HN.
    - hyko 6y ago
      Why would you prefer actual aggression to passive aggression? For what its worth, I don’t think the OP was intending to be insulting; this seemed more like an inside joke designed to foster camaraderie.
      - adventured 6y ago
        > Why would you prefer actual aggression to passive aggression? Probably for the same reason I disliked the Sinatra content so much, too obviously fake. The whole of the parent comment was that single remark I quoted, before they edited the comment. They were intending to lob a passive aggressive insult on the lighter side. They didn't like my comment, so they fired off a shot about my comment being equivalent to a questionably human, possibly mediocre GPT3 text. I don't mind that sort of mild insult in response, I just prefer it without the unnecessary facade of the smiley.
        brownbat 6y ago
        I thought they were saying the defense was like defenses of gpt-3, that it will be good someday, or it's good if you are very selective about the output, not that your comment was poorly written. One of those readings is just musing about the state of all this "almost there" tech, the other is just randomly insulting someone's writing. That does seem like pretty dangerous ambiguity. Akiselev maybe wrote a blue gold dress of comments where one reading is mean-spirited. I doubt it was intentional, but could have been clearer.
      - nurettin 6y ago
        People who act like bot appraisers on the first sign of disagreement only foster annoyance.
      - bezmenov 6y ago
        Skin in the game.
    - akiselev 6y ago
      My apologies, it wasn't meant as an insult. I was trying to make a point and added a smiley face because I thought it would certainly be misconstrued as insult without it.
- michaelt 6y ago
  > I'm struggling to understand how they're great examples. Taking 'Six U.S. Presidents read "Fuck Tha Police" by N.W.A.' I certainly agree there are long sections where the synthesis is obvious - stilted sounding, overlong pauses between words, changes in tone in the middle of a sentence, background noises / changing audio quality accompanying different words and speakers, and so on. But there are sections where it manages to generate several words in a row without those problems. Like at 23 seconds, the section "so help your black ass? / Ya goddamn right / Well, won't you tell everybody what the fuck you gotta say?" sounds pretty realistic. If you blame the bad sections on lack of training data for older presidents, take the good sections as proof of what's possible, and imagine the entire recording will be that good in 3-5 years, then it's an impressive demo.
- jefftk 6y ago
  Agreed; the Nixon deepfake in the OP is pretty good, but all three of these sound immediately artificial.
- norswap 6y ago
  Agreed those are not the best examples. This one (JFK reading the Rick & Morty copypasta) strikes me as much more convincing however: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkH2zEHJ2Ng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkH2zEHJ2Ng
  - fokinsean 6y ago
    The Trump/Darth Plagueis copy pasta got a chuckle out of me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzIAixNkFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzIAixNkFI
2038AD 6y ago
It's pretty cool though I prefer H. W. Bush's feature with the Geto Boys [1] and in terms of presidential rap, Bill isn't the best Clinton [2] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJCFc_qkHw&t=213 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJCFc_qkHw&t=213 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NltUHA22oQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NltUHA22oQ

adventured 6y ago

I'm struggling to understand how they're great examples. They sound absolutely atrocious and nowhere near believable. They sound really, really bad, like something an amateur with zero editing experience could put together with cheap equipment. They're so bad they're difficult to listen to, especially the Sinatra one.

akiselev 6y ago
This sounds like a GPT3 response :) Note I said "great examples of what's possible today" not "great examples of JFK recording NWA's Fuck the Police".
- adventured 6y ago
  > This sounds like a GPT3 response :) If you're going to try to insult someone, own it and leave off the smiley. Don't hide behind that weak passive aggressiveness.
  - whatshisface 6y ago
    I think the team behind this comment thread accidentally substituted the GPT instance tuned for Reddit for the one tuned for HN.
  - hyko 6y ago
    Why would you prefer actual aggression to passive aggression? For what its worth, I don’t think the OP was intending to be insulting; this seemed more like an inside joke designed to foster camaraderie.
    - adventured 6y ago
      > Why would you prefer actual aggression to passive aggression? Probably for the same reason I disliked the Sinatra content so much, too obviously fake. The whole of the parent comment was that single remark I quoted, before they edited the comment. They were intending to lob a passive aggressive insult on the lighter side. They didn't like my comment, so they fired off a shot about my comment being equivalent to a questionably human, possibly mediocre GPT3 text. I don't mind that sort of mild insult in response, I just prefer it without the unnecessary facade of the smiley.
      - brownbat 6y ago
        I thought they were saying the defense was like defenses of gpt-3, that it will be good someday, or it's good if you are very selective about the output, not that your comment was poorly written. One of those readings is just musing about the state of all this "almost there" tech, the other is just randomly insulting someone's writing. That does seem like pretty dangerous ambiguity. Akiselev maybe wrote a blue gold dress of comments where one reading is mean-spirited. I doubt it was intentional, but could have been clearer.
    - nurettin 6y ago
      People who act like bot appraisers on the first sign of disagreement only foster annoyance.
    - bezmenov 6y ago
      Skin in the game.
  - akiselev 6y ago
    My apologies, it wasn't meant as an insult. I was trying to make a point and added a smiley face because I thought it would certainly be misconstrued as insult without it.
michaelt 6y ago
> I'm struggling to understand how they're great examples. Taking 'Six U.S. Presidents read "Fuck Tha Police" by N.W.A.' I certainly agree there are long sections where the synthesis is obvious - stilted sounding, overlong pauses between words, changes in tone in the middle of a sentence, background noises / changing audio quality accompanying different words and speakers, and so on. But there are sections where it manages to generate several words in a row without those problems. Like at 23 seconds, the section "so help your black ass? / Ya goddamn right / Well, won't you tell everybody what the fuck you gotta say?" sounds pretty realistic. If you blame the bad sections on lack of training data for older presidents, take the good sections as proof of what's possible, and imagine the entire recording will be that good in 3-5 years, then it's an impressive demo.
jefftk 6y ago
Agreed; the Nixon deepfake in the OP is pretty good, but all three of these sound immediately artificial.
norswap 6y ago
Agreed those are not the best examples. This one (JFK reading the Rick & Morty copypasta) strikes me as much more convincing however: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkH2zEHJ2Ng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkH2zEHJ2Ng
- fokinsean 6y ago
  The Trump/Darth Plagueis copy pasta got a chuckle out of me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzIAixNkFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzIAixNkFI

2038AD 6y ago

It's pretty cool though I prefer H. W. Bush's feature with the Geto Boys [1] and in terms of presidential rap, Bill isn't the best Clinton [2] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJCFc_qkHw&t=213 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJCFc_qkHw&t=213 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NltUHA22oQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NltUHA22oQ