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Ask HN: Why is uptalk intonation so prevalent in ChatGPT voices?
I’ve tried asking it to set voice with an even tone and less of the annoying uptalk but lately it just continues in this way. It hurts to listen to.
- luluthefirst 2y agoIt generates more engagement than a monotonous tone.
- SoftTalker 2y agoPrompt it to talk like an NPR announcer.
- floren 2y agoLip smacks and audible intakes of breath?
- JTbane 2y agoI listen to NPR during my commute and these tics have a calming effect Is this ASMR?
- adrianmonk 2y agoI believe that's the Neumann U87 microphones that are standard at NPR. You can get a similar sound if you don't mind spending $3600 on a microphone. https://current.org/2015/06/a-top-audio-engineer-explains-nprs-signature-sound/ https://current.org/2015/06/a-top-audio-engineer-explains-np...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- swyx 2y agoMade in California. next question
- carabiner 2y agoMade in California? Next question?
- barbazoo 2y agoMade in California! Next question!
- ryandrake 2y agoI wish it were only a California thing. The Valley Girl uptalk/vocal fry thing seems to have spread across the country. Turn on the local news station in any region of the country and you'll hear it. Everyone is for some reason trying to sound like the Real Housewives Of Orange County.
- alabastervlog 2y agoNPR's even been full of it for more than a decade now. I think at some point (the '00s?) they really relaxed their elocution standards for hosts & reporters. It definitely makes reporting feel trustworthy and serious? When almost every statement sounds like a tentative question?
- TRiG_Ireland 2y ago"Vocal fry" is not really a thing, as David Peterson explains. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIJyEc07w2Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIJyEc07w2Q
- PaulHoule 2y agoI like vocal fry as a vocal adjustment because (1) you can do it with no talent, and (2) since it is atonal you can use it and have no risk of your vocal tone slipping upward because you're under stress.
- ctrlp 2y agoWhy is it so prevalent in people generally?
- rglover 2y agoBecause they think it makes them sound Smart? Because it's safer to fit in with the crowd than to Not? Because having a genuine personality is Difficult?
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoThe point of language is to have shared communication. That people adopt language standards isn't a moral failing, and accent is a legitimate part of it as it's more organic/instinctual to human interaction than grammar/diction classes.
- rglover 2y agoTrue, but this particular style was born out of a region where people are largely known to be smug and arrogant about their intelligence/"betterness" than other people. Not sure I'd call it a moral failing as much as a marker of who to avoid (much like a dangerous plant having bright colors or scents).
- ctrlp 2y agoIt's not an accent, it's an affect.
- alabastervlog 2y agoAs far as I can tell, it's an "I am not done talking yet" thing in many contexts. That's why people employing it usually drop the uptalk for their last sentence in a string of sentences (unless it's an actual question). I reckon it took off because of telephones.
- AStonesThrow 2y agoI freakin' hate telephones, and I always have, and the Dowager Countess of Grantham was correct in surmising that they are torture devices of the highest caliber. I always try to prefer virtual meetings with video and all the trimmings, especially screen-share capability. If not, in-person. Telephoning is like a last resort. I've pondered using TTY/TDD even though I have no physical impairments, but most agencies seem hostile to that sort of barrier and most of the time, I find myself needing to pass voice-recognizing gatekeeper AIs first. When I was promoted to "sysadmin" in my first job they set me at a desk with a computer and a PBX telephone. (It was an office at a gov't defense contractor...) The computer I could relate to on an intimate level; the telephone scared the living bejesus out of me, and I prayed it never to ring. A disembodied voice in your ear, especially one that interrupts everything you're doing and demanding a real-time conversation across space and time, that's incredibly rude, yet normalized for 100 years. I have PTSD and other disabilities, and I can get completely rattled and downright hostile/aggro when someone calls me and I'm not prepared, I'm not at my desk, no notes in front of me, even if I'm relaxing at home I just can't deal. I may answer the phone while on a bus or train, but I certainly won't sustain a conversation that way. Outgoing calls are sometimes OK but often end in disaster as I become increasingly frustrated. Now it's not uncommon for someone who's standing at my front door to telephone me. What the hell, I'm less than 3 yards away in here, please don't send me across Cyberspace when you're manifesting in meatspace... On a phone call I have no idea what office I've reached, what is a person's job title or role with a company, what their face looks like, when they may be taking a breath or using other physical cues to aid the conversation. So much metadata is lost in phone conversations that they are wholly dehumanized and require a revolution in etiquette, just to keep the peace. Here's your uptalk origin: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM&si=3j3bYd_0rPa8hcHR https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM&si=3j3bYd_0rPa... "Valley Girl, she's a Valley Girl!" I'm not autistic and I can read expressions and body language, but perhaps autists are the evolutionary result of disembodied telephone conversations taking out the human element from verbal communication. It is simply amazing that even with apps and ubiquitous Internet and website portals that I still require the telephone to get important business done (and I'm always, always ticking "it's something else/other/Live Agent/Oh god this is an exception to all your rules please send me a human being").
- slillibri 2y agoThey are still working on a realistic vocal fry?
- AStonesThrow 2y agoThe new office mate’s prank will be to switch your AI’s voice to a Kardashian, Fran Drescher, Pauly Shore... Plus I am sure that LLM engines could command a premium by shrewdly licensing such talent as James Earl Jones, Majel Barrett, or Milla Jovovich? But it seems like the current trend is novel/generic voices in order to avoid suits/fees and pioneer new territory. Isn‘t Siri‘s personality a recognizable celebrity by now?
- mikrl 2y agoWhen can I get the GPT that sounds like Boomhauer crossed with Gerald from Clarksons farm?
- throwaway889900 2y agoJust gotta pipe it through a granular synth afterwards
- seydor 2y agothey can use Sam's voice
- hn_user82179 2y agoI haven't noticed anything "off" with the ChatGPT voices. But I know I personally do speak with uptalk intonation as well
- chc4 2y agonothing much, what's uptalk with you?
- nativeit 2y agoI'm having a rough couple of months, I'll be honest. [that should be read in the least sincere "my pleasure to serve you at the window" voice you can muster]
- carabiner 2y agoI don't see the problem with uptalk?
- rawgabbit 2y agoI personalized mine to "Cove" and instructed it to speak with a Scottish accent, slow and warm. I am hoping to refine it so it will more closely sound like Sean Connery, but this is the best I could do.
- ergonaught 2y agoJust telling it "Avoid upward inflection" or "Use a flat tone" prevents the lilt for me. Perhaps it doesn't "stick"? Perhaps it varies by voice.
- hbarka 2y agoIt partially works but it doesn’t “stick”, as you say. I’ve tried setting it on Preferences but it isn’t consistent.
- treetalker 2y agoNo doubt the next feature will be starting every paragraph, if not every sentence, with "tsk!" (that wet clicking sound many people do with their tongue and teeth as they inhale before speaking). Pure anecdata, but I notice women doing it much more than men, and it has made its way into newscasts.
- qoez 2y agoJarvis, less vocal fry please
- parisisles 2y agoI'm not sure why, but the voices in voice mode are different than the voices used to dictate responses provided in "normal" mode. The latter are far better / less annoying.
- mvdtnz 2y agoAmericans. Ever listen to an American podcast?
- alabastervlog 2y agoDo they also add "right?" all the time for no reason? Need that for an accurate rendering.
- ViktorRay 2y agoI believe OpenAI wants ChaptGPT to have a tone that is more casual and less professional or uptight than it was before.... And so ChatGPT relies on the training data to know what that means so it leads to it talking like this as this is what the training data is filled with.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bradgranath 2y agoBecause they trained them on Vloggers and TikTokkers and Podcasters without asking any of them permission.
- paulcole 2y ago> It hurts to listen to. Does it really? Isn’t this the kind of thing it would be good to practice tuning out rather than complaining about?
- gtirloni 2y agoI'm sure your intonation sounds annoying to some other generation too.