The Rise of Deep Fake Voice Cloning By Brian Simpson
I was recently made aware of the advances in deep fake voice cloning when hearing how an ordinary guy, a fan of Paul McCartney, took a fragment of Paul singing an unreleased, undeveloped song during the Get Back/Let it Be sections, and made a new Beatles' song, which was very close to what they might have done, back in the day. Paul's voice was AI generated, and the additional lyrics as well. There is now a cottage industry of AI-based musicians making new Beatles songs.
But now things have moved way past this with ChatGPT-maker, OpenAI,the latest tech giant to develop voice cloning software, but it will not be releasedto the general public, due to the misuse it could be put to, especially in an election year. But that does not mean much, as other firms will in time release their AI voice cloning products, and it will be on.
It means that we can no longer trust anything we hear in public domain communications, as it could in principle be AI generated. That brings us into a whole new world, and the legal significance in terms of evidence issues, must be profoundly significant. How does one determine the real from the deep fake?
"A new type of deepfake known as voice cloning has emerged in recent months, in which artificial intelligence (AI) is used to simulate your voice.
ChatGPT-maker, OpenAI, is the latest tech giant to develop voice cloning software - but it's not releasing it to the public.
The creepy technology can replicate anyone's voice within just 15 seconds of recorded speech.
And OpenAI has deemed it 'too risky' for public use - particularly in an election year.
'We recognise that generating speech that resembles people's voices has serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year,' the San Francisco company said in a statement.
OpenAI unveiled the Voice Engine technology on Friday, just over a week after filing a trademark application for the name.
The company claims that it can recreate a person's voice with just 15 seconds of recording of that person talking.
OpenAI says it plans to preview it with early testers 'but not widely release this technology at this time' because of the dangers of misuse.
In New Hampshire, authorities are investigating robocalls sent to thousands of voters just before the presidential primary that featured an AI-generated voice mimicking President Joe Biden.
A number of start-up companies already sell voice-cloning technology, some of which is accessible to the public or for select business customers such as entertainment studios."
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