This is an interesting problem. I thought and wrote a little about this a few years ago: https://enki.org/2017/03/02/historical-narrators/
Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
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Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#32I actually think getting deep fake stuff to the public is the way to go. Basically anyone can create a deep fake. It is far better to get the public used to the idea of deep fakes so they can develop some immunity to it.
We've had Photoshop for 3 decades and airbrushing for even longer and it's had far-reaching impacts across society... no one is really immune to it because it isn't obvious and it has arguably poisoned realistic ideals around body image. IMO we need to mandate disclosures around deepfakes. It's impossible on a peer-to-peer level, but commercially it should be clearly disclosed.
We don't get immunity to photoshop in the "I can tell from some of the pixels" sense, but we gain immunity in the sense that we no longer accept every image as representing absolute truth. Plenty of people today still think that video manipulation more sophisticated than an instagram filter takes a Hollywood budget or a lot of expertise.
Once people get more experience seeing and creating deepfakes on their own they'll be less trusting of random videos they see in the future
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#33After electronic distribution and Amazon's ability to redact the books on your Kindle, this is the next important thing to notice.
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#34I'm sure Kenny G. will have some way of making bank on this technology.
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just quick context on the squid bit: it wasn’t Tony’s crew (zero point zero productions), it was the combination of local fixers/boat folks who wanted to make it look like they caught fish.
Funny enough, him describing the ploy while sort of mocking it as it happened led to an enjoyable moment in that episode (imo). It showcased his humility, and ability to make the most out of a situation while not taking himself too seriously.
That's one of my favorite scenes. He is so angry drunk and it's his birthday and you can tell he doesn't like the chef at all (the chef is the same guy who took them out "fishing" earlier in the day).
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#36Out of all the celebrities, Bourdain would have viscerally despised this. He hated fake phoney people, or food. He hated when his production crew would stovepipe his bits. He hated a scene in Greese (I believe) where crew went out and bought squid, and threw them into the water to made the shoot better. I really liked Bourdain. He was one of the few celebrities that didn't seem to change with fame, or money. I watche…
After reading his books, I would agree and was hoping someone had posted this. If anyone would vehemently oppose such manipulation, it would be Anthony Bourdain. Is there a disclaimer before this scene is shown? I'll choose not to watch such a documentary created by those with skewed ethics.
There does not seem to be any disclaimer regarding the manipulation, and the OP article questions whether the director would even have mentioned it had it not come up tangentially in the course of this interview.
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just quick context on the squid bit: it wasn’t Tony’s crew (zero point zero productions), it was the combination of local fixers/boat folks who wanted to make it look like they caught fish.
Funny enough, him describing the ploy while sort of mocking it as it happened led to an enjoyable moment in that episode (imo). It showcased his humility, and ability to make the most out of a situation while not taking himself too seriously.
Thing is, more I rewatch his shows, all of his comments about depression and anger have taken a really somber tone now given what we know. I wish someone was there with him to help him through through that time.
His death really affected me in a deep way I didn’t expect. I miss him so much.
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny enough, him describing the ploy while sort of mocking it as it happened led to an enjoyable moment in that episode (imo). It showcased his humility, and ability to make the most out of a situation while not taking himself too seriously.
Thing is, more I rewatch his shows, all of his comments about depression and anger have taken a really somber tone now given what we know. I wish someone was there with him to help him through through that time. His death really affected me in a deep way I didn’t expect. I miss him so much.
One of the other big scenes like that is up-river in SE Asia, talking about "how he wished that he could say it would be difficult [to kill a pig with a spear], but that time and distance have hardened the person he once was".
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be interesting to see if recreating songs is possible, if so i would like to hear the voice of Jim morrison and Curt Cobain.
I have a machine with two GPUs and a frozen OS with a tensorflow python app that clones voices, and I'd say the quality passes if you run it through a phone bandpass filter. I've had an idea to use propellerhead recycle to chop the output cloned voice into syllables, and then "play" the chopped parts in rhythm, through autotune. The issue is you get Eifel 65 sounding autotune if your base vocals are monotonic or way…
> The only way I can think of fixing this is to use something like audacity's pitch changer that doesn't affect the speed of the sample
Check out Ableton Live’s “Simpler”
Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions
#40There are ethical concerns but I think we'll just learn to live with it.
Forging signatures are easy and have been around forever but signatures are still used for very important purposes (even electronically now!).
It may take a while for the legal system to catch up and using voice recordings as evidence may be tricker than before.
But on a more exciting front, I think synthetic voice can be made like fonts. Celebrities and voice actors will be able to sell their synthetic voice like how fonts are sold today. You'll be able to change the voice of your Alexa, Siri to a voice you downloaded from a marketplace. Netflix may even let you select the narrator's voice for your favorite documentary. Hundreds of years later, people may be watching a documentary in Morgan Freeman's voice while having no idea that he was actually a famous actor in the past.