5 ms·

We're used to hearing some kind of identity behind voices -- we unconsciously sense clusters of vocabulary, intonation patterns, ticks, frequent interruption vs

We're used to hearing some kind of identity behind voices -- we unconsciously sense clusters of vocabulary, intonation patterns, ticks, frequent interruption vs quiet patience, silence tolerance, response patterns to various triggers, etc that communicate a coherent person of some kind. We may not know that a given speaker is a GenX Methodist from Wisconsin that grew up at skate parks in the suburbs, but we hear clusters of speech behavior that lets our brain go "yeah, I'm used to things fitting together in this way sometimes" These don't have that. Instead, they seem to mostly smudge together behaviors that are just generally common in aggregate across the training data. The speakers all voice interrupting acknowledgements eagerly, they all use bright and enunciated podcaster tone, they all draw on similar word choice, etc -- they distinguish gender and each have a stable overall vocal tone, but no identity. I don't doubt that this'll improve quickly though, by training specific "AI celebrity" voices narrowed to sound more coherent, natural, identifiable, and consistent. (And then, probably, leasing out those voices for $$$.) As a tech demo for "render some vague sense of life behind this generated dialog" this is pretty good, though.

lancesells 2y ago
Agreed. To me it sounds like bad voice-over actors reading from a script. So the natural parts of a conversation where you might say the wrong thing and step back to correct yourself are all gone. Impressive for sure.
- htrp 2y ago
  every step of technological advancement builds on top of the previous one. now it's bad voice actors, in 2 years it'll be great ones
  - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
    This is why voice actors are on strike to stop their voices from being used with AI. I mean it's probably futile.
    - serf 2y ago
      it's probably futile, and the 'AI/art protests' seem to miss the point that the protest itself is also encouraging The Man to seriously consider AI-powered replacement. The protest itself is exactly the kind of thing that will be avoided by replacing humans, demonstrated writ-large for the people with the cheque-book. I can understand the spirit of protest and why it occurs, but it just seems so out-of-line strategically/tactically when used against automation that's taking jobs. Just the order of events is kind of funny to me, and this applies to automation-job-taking protest the world over : A technique is demonstrated that displaces workers, the workers then picket and refuse to work -- understandable, but faced with the current prospect of "This mechanism performs similar work for cheaper", it seems counter-productive to then demonstrate the worst-case-scenario for the patron : a work stoppage that an automated workforce would never experience, alongside legal fees that would never be encountered had they an automated work-force. That all said, protest is one of the only weapons in the arsenal of the working -- it just feels as if the argument against automation is one of the places where that technique rings hollow. In the case of media/movies/literature/etc, I think the power to force corporations to value humans is solely in the hands of the consumer -- and unfortunately that's such an unorganized 'group' that it's unlikely they will establish any kind of collective action that would instantiate change.
- xico 2y ago
  Yup. Plus the interactions you'd expect for instance in terms of matching style of voice in a normal discussion are missing. That being said it still sounds pretty impressive.
TimTheTinker 2y ago
Whether this stops at the uncanny valley or progresses to specific "AI celebrity" voices, I'm left thinking the engineers involved in this never stopped to think carefully about whether this ought to be done in the first place.
- jsheard 2y ago
  "Surely my genAI product won't be used to spam zero-effort slop all over the internet!" - guy whose genAI product will definitely be used to spam zero-effort slop all over the internet.
  - _DeadFred_ 2y ago
    I think their main target is corporate creative jobs. Background music to ads/videos/etc. And just like with all AI, they will eat the jobs that support the rest of the system, making it a one and done. It will give a one time boost, and then be stuck at that level because creatives won't have the jobs that allowed them to add to the domain. In this case new music styles. New techniques. It's literally eating the seed corn where the sprouts are the creatives working in the boring commercial jobs that allow them to practice/become experts in the tools/etc that they then build up it all. Their goal is cut the jobs that create their training data and the ecosystem that builds up/expands the domain. Everywhere AI touches will basically be 'stuck using Cobol' because AI will be frozen at the point in time where the energy infusing 'sprouts' all had their jobs replaced by AI and without them creating new output for AI to train on it's all ossified. We are witnessing in real time the answer to why 'The Matrix' was set when it was. Once AI takes over there is no future culture.
    - grugagag 2y ago
      > It's literally eating the seed corn where the sprouts are the creatives working in the boring commercial jobs that allow them to practice/become experts in the tools/etc that they then build up it all. This is a big problem that needs to be talked about more, the endgoal of AI seems to be quite grim for jobs and generally for humans. Where will this pure profit lead to? If all advertising will be generated who will want to have anything to do with all the products they’re advertising?
adamhartenz 2y ago
To be fair, the majority of podcasts are from a group of generic white guys, and they almost sound identical to these AI generated ones. The AI actually seems to to do a better job too.
- freestyle24147 2y ago
  Citation absolutely needed. You call this fair? > the majority of podcasts are from a group of generic white guys
  - sangnoir 2y ago
    https://podcastcharts.byspotify.com/ https://podcastcharts.byspotify.com/ keep the Pareto distribution in mind
    - neom 2y ago
      I did the best fast research I could given not wanting to spend more than 20 minutes on it and came to this result (aprox): - Mixed/Diverse: 48.0% - White Men: 35.0% - Women: 8.0% - Non-White: 6.0% - White Woman: 2.0% - Non-White Woman: 1.0%
  - tightbookkeeper 2y ago
    I love the "white = generic = bland" meme too. All the science and literature before 1930 it was trained on is also likely "generic white guys".
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  I laughed and sort of agreed with this, in spirit. You're off on the details I think though. When I listened to the audio samples before coming to the comments, I thought: "oh, like those totally lifeless and bland U.S. accents from podcasts, YT, etc." I wouldn't associate it with skin colour or gender though at all. I've no idea why you'd go there - any skin colour and any gender is absolutely welcomed into the fold of U.S. cultural production, if they can produce bland generic "content" sincerely enough, it seems to me. Disclaimer: many U.S. accents are interesting and wonderful (Colorado; Tom Waits), they don't all sound generic and bland. I have U.S. friends therefore I can pass judgment (TM).

lancesells 2y ago

Agreed. To me it sounds like bad voice-over actors reading from a script. So the natural parts of a conversation where you might say the wrong thing and step back to correct yourself are all gone. Impressive for sure.

htrp 2y ago
every step of technological advancement builds on top of the previous one. now it's bad voice actors, in 2 years it'll be great ones
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  This is why voice actors are on strike to stop their voices from being used with AI. I mean it's probably futile.
  - serf 2y ago
    it's probably futile, and the 'AI/art protests' seem to miss the point that the protest itself is also encouraging The Man to seriously consider AI-powered replacement. The protest itself is exactly the kind of thing that will be avoided by replacing humans, demonstrated writ-large for the people with the cheque-book. I can understand the spirit of protest and why it occurs, but it just seems so out-of-line strategically/tactically when used against automation that's taking jobs. Just the order of events is kind of funny to me, and this applies to automation-job-taking protest the world over : A technique is demonstrated that displaces workers, the workers then picket and refuse to work -- understandable, but faced with the current prospect of "This mechanism performs similar work for cheaper", it seems counter-productive to then demonstrate the worst-case-scenario for the patron : a work stoppage that an automated workforce would never experience, alongside legal fees that would never be encountered had they an automated work-force. That all said, protest is one of the only weapons in the arsenal of the working -- it just feels as if the argument against automation is one of the places where that technique rings hollow. In the case of media/movies/literature/etc, I think the power to force corporations to value humans is solely in the hands of the consumer -- and unfortunately that's such an unorganized 'group' that it's unlikely they will establish any kind of collective action that would instantiate change.
xico 2y ago
Yup. Plus the interactions you'd expect for instance in terms of matching style of voice in a normal discussion are missing. That being said it still sounds pretty impressive.

TimTheTinker 2y ago

Whether this stops at the uncanny valley or progresses to specific "AI celebrity" voices, I'm left thinking the engineers involved in this never stopped to think carefully about whether this ought to be done in the first place.

jsheard 2y ago
"Surely my genAI product won't be used to spam zero-effort slop all over the internet!" - guy whose genAI product will definitely be used to spam zero-effort slop all over the internet.
- _DeadFred_ 2y ago
  I think their main target is corporate creative jobs. Background music to ads/videos/etc. And just like with all AI, they will eat the jobs that support the rest of the system, making it a one and done. It will give a one time boost, and then be stuck at that level because creatives won't have the jobs that allowed them to add to the domain. In this case new music styles. New techniques. It's literally eating the seed corn where the sprouts are the creatives working in the boring commercial jobs that allow them to practice/become experts in the tools/etc that they then build up it all. Their goal is cut the jobs that create their training data and the ecosystem that builds up/expands the domain. Everywhere AI touches will basically be 'stuck using Cobol' because AI will be frozen at the point in time where the energy infusing 'sprouts' all had their jobs replaced by AI and without them creating new output for AI to train on it's all ossified. We are witnessing in real time the answer to why 'The Matrix' was set when it was. Once AI takes over there is no future culture.
  - grugagag 2y ago
    > It's literally eating the seed corn where the sprouts are the creatives working in the boring commercial jobs that allow them to practice/become experts in the tools/etc that they then build up it all. This is a big problem that needs to be talked about more, the endgoal of AI seems to be quite grim for jobs and generally for humans. Where will this pure profit lead to? If all advertising will be generated who will want to have anything to do with all the products they’re advertising?

adamhartenz 2y ago

To be fair, the majority of podcasts are from a group of generic white guys, and they almost sound identical to these AI generated ones. The AI actually seems to to do a better job too.

freestyle24147 2y ago
Citation absolutely needed. You call this fair? > the majority of podcasts are from a group of generic white guys
- sangnoir 2y ago
  https://podcastcharts.byspotify.com/ https://podcastcharts.byspotify.com/ keep the Pareto distribution in mind
  - neom 2y ago
    I did the best fast research I could given not wanting to spend more than 20 minutes on it and came to this result (aprox): - Mixed/Diverse: 48.0% - White Men: 35.0% - Women: 8.0% - Non-White: 6.0% - White Woman: 2.0% - Non-White Woman: 1.0%
- tightbookkeeper 2y ago
  I love the "white = generic = bland" meme too. All the science and literature before 1930 it was trained on is also likely "generic white guys".
sourcepluck 2y ago
I laughed and sort of agreed with this, in spirit. You're off on the details I think though. When I listened to the audio samples before coming to the comments, I thought: "oh, like those totally lifeless and bland U.S. accents from podcasts, YT, etc." I wouldn't associate it with skin colour or gender though at all. I've no idea why you'd go there - any skin colour and any gender is absolutely welcomed into the fold of U.S. cultural production, if they can produce bland generic "content" sincerely enough, it seems to me. Disclaimer: many U.S. accents are interesting and wonderful (Colorado; Tom Waits), they don't all sound generic and bland. I have U.S. friends therefore I can pass judgment (TM).