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What you're not considering here is that a large majority of this industry is made up of no-name voice actors who have a pleasant (but perfectly substitutible)

What you're not considering here is that a large majority of this industry is made up of no-name voice actors who have a pleasant (but perfectly substitutible) voice which is now something that AI can do perfectly and at a fraction of the price. Sure, celebrities and other well-known figures will have more to gain here as they can license out their voice; but the majority of voice actors won't be able to capitalize on this. So this is actually even more perverse because it again creates a system where all assets will accumulate at the top and there won't be any distributions for everyone else.

washadjeffmad 3y ago
No, I am. I work with them, and I've been one (am one, rarely). I listed just one possible use, but I also see voice cloning and advanced TTS expanding access for evocative instruction, as an aid to study style and expand range. Don't be afraid on their behalf. The dooming you're talking about applied to every one of the technological changes I already listed, and we employ more performers and artists today than ever in history. When animation went digital, we graduated more storyboard artists and digital animators. When music notation software and sampling could replace musicians and orchestras, we graduated more musicians and composers trained on those tools. Now it's the performing arts, and no one in industry is going to shrink their pool of available talent (or risk ire) by daring conflate authenticity and performance with virtual impersonation. Performance capture and vfx also didn't kill or consolidate the movie industry - it allowed it to expand. Art evolves, and so does its business. People who love art want to see people who do art succeed. I'm optimistic.
- nikkwong 3y ago
  I don't know, I feel like the work produced through voice acting is more of a commodity than work in the other industries that you're describing. Sure, a voice actor can add a lot of emotion and verbal nuance in a way that is differentiating, but I'm not sure if the difference is enough to matter for most people for the vast majority of cases. (Or I may be too dense to realize it). This is in contradiction to say performing arts, where there are in my opinion many more dimensions to the creative output which makes it less perfectly substitutable.
  - washadjeffmad 3y ago
    Where do you see AI being most used in a production pipeline? Do you think it will replace actors or that it might just reduce the burden on existing talent, like canned audio has done for decades? Will it make ADR easier or cheaper? Will it actually save anyone any money who wants to ever be able to hire a living actor again? There are a lot of clever sounding, low probability arguments here, and I think a lot of people don't understand the work well enough to identify what are and aren't the elephants.
- hgomersall 3y ago
  TTS actually allows scope for far more different artists' likenesses to be incorporated. An book can be read with all the characters having a different voice entirely. This is difficult currently and relies on the skill of the performer.
- beltsazar 3y ago
  > When animation went digital, we graduated more storyboard artists and digital animators. When music notation software and sampling could replace musicians and orchestras, we graduated more musicians and composers trained on those tools. What you explained is that tech has changed the tools used by artists. It's substantially different with AI-based TTS, though. It's not a tool for artists, but it's a tool for movie/game/book publishers to replace human voice actors. The AI will be much much more scalable and cheaper.

washadjeffmad 3y ago

No, I am. I work with them, and I've been one (am one, rarely). I listed just one possible use, but I also see voice cloning and advanced TTS expanding access for evocative instruction, as an aid to study style and expand range. Don't be afraid on their behalf. The dooming you're talking about applied to every one of the technological changes I already listed, and we employ more performers and artists today than ever in history. When animation went digital, we graduated more storyboard artists and digital animators. When music notation software and sampling could replace musicians and orchestras, we graduated more musicians and composers trained on those tools. Now it's the performing arts, and no one in industry is going to shrink their pool of available talent (or risk ire) by daring conflate authenticity and performance with virtual impersonation. Performance capture and vfx also didn't kill or consolidate the movie industry - it allowed it to expand. Art evolves, and so does its business. People who love art want to see people who do art succeed. I'm optimistic.

nikkwong 3y ago
I don't know, I feel like the work produced through voice acting is more of a commodity than work in the other industries that you're describing. Sure, a voice actor can add a lot of emotion and verbal nuance in a way that is differentiating, but I'm not sure if the difference is enough to matter for most people for the vast majority of cases. (Or I may be too dense to realize it). This is in contradiction to say performing arts, where there are in my opinion many more dimensions to the creative output which makes it less perfectly substitutable.
- washadjeffmad 3y ago
  Where do you see AI being most used in a production pipeline? Do you think it will replace actors or that it might just reduce the burden on existing talent, like canned audio has done for decades? Will it make ADR easier or cheaper? Will it actually save anyone any money who wants to ever be able to hire a living actor again? There are a lot of clever sounding, low probability arguments here, and I think a lot of people don't understand the work well enough to identify what are and aren't the elephants.
hgomersall 3y ago
TTS actually allows scope for far more different artists' likenesses to be incorporated. An book can be read with all the characters having a different voice entirely. This is difficult currently and relies on the skill of the performer.
beltsazar 3y ago
> When animation went digital, we graduated more storyboard artists and digital animators. When music notation software and sampling could replace musicians and orchestras, we graduated more musicians and composers trained on those tools. What you explained is that tech has changed the tools used by artists. It's substantially different with AI-based TTS, though. It's not a tool for artists, but it's a tool for movie/game/book publishers to replace human voice actors. The AI will be much much more scalable and cheaper.