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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

#71

Post by borski »

ipsum2 wrote: post #47
nsomaru wrote: post #7

A deepfake audio + video with mask of the mayor of ethekwini was used to encourage people to continue looting during recent riots in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It’s scary.

Googling "Deep fake ethekwini" brings up... this comment.

To be fair, that doesn’t make it untrue. It just means a source is required - the parent may be a primary source, heh, but that has to be established.

(I agree with you, I just have been corrected in the past with actual on-ground knowledge that hadn’t been reported yet - don’t know if that’s the case here :))

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#72

Post by godelski »

jamestimmins wrote: post #5
yohannparis wrote: post #2

As a viewer of the documentary, I will love that effect instead of a bland voice-over. But a note should be added on the screen that the voice is AI-generated. Like when they say a war video is a reenactment.

Agreed, this whole issue could be solved with a message before the film runs about how the voiceover is created, and then a "recreation" label during that scene.

I don't think so. There are still other ethical considerations. Bourdain likely would not have liked this, as others in the thread point out. So it is weird to honor someone with a documentary but not honor their wishes

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#73

Post by autoexec »

inlikealamb wrote: post #70
autoexec wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

>we no longer accept every image as representing absolute truth That's not true for many people (I'd go as far to say most), and we're so inundated with it that unedited media is the minority . Ad campaigns get PR for being "unedited" and even then they're heavily art directed (casting, lighting, styling, etc) to compensate. The effects are so widespread that they're subliminal, even if you're conscious of the scope…

photo manipulation is pervasive, but I don't take that as evidence that it is actually being believed as truth. I'm not really sure what the subliminal effects are. If you see an ad for a fast food burger on TV it might successfully make you hungry, and make you want to go to that restaurant, but nobody really expects the food they get will look anything like the food in the ad did.

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#74

Post by inlikealamb »

autoexec wrote: post #73
inlikealamb wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>we no longer accept every image as representing absolute truth That's not true for many people (I'd go as far to say most), and we're so inundated with it that unedited media is the minority . Ad campaigns get PR for being "unedited" and even then they're heavily art directed (casting, lighting, styling, etc) to compensate. The effects are so widespread that they're subliminal, even if you're conscious of the scope…

photo manipulation is pervasive, but I don't take that as evidence that it is actually being believed as truth. I'm not really sure what the subliminal effects are. If you see an ad for a fast food burger on TV it might successfully make you hungry, and make you want to go to that restaurant, but nobody really expects the food they get will look anything like the food in the ad did.

> but nobody really expects the food they get will look anything like the food in the ad did

Have you ever worked at a restaurant? It's not as unusual as you think. A lot of us on HN are in bubbles of savvy people because of our tech-related professions, and most people are NOT savvy. Many people never consciously think about the images they're subjected to.

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#75

Post by autoexec »

inlikealamb wrote: post #74
autoexec wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

photo manipulation is pervasive, but I don't take that as evidence that it is actually being believed as truth. I'm not really sure what the subliminal effects are. If you see an ad for a fast food burger on TV it might successfully make you hungry, and make you want to go to that restaurant, but nobody really expects the food they get will look anything like the food in the ad did.

> but nobody really expects the food they get will look anything like the food in the ad did Have you ever worked at a restaurant? It's not as unusual as you think. A lot of us on HN are in bubbles of savvy people because of our tech-related professions, and most people are NOT savvy. Many people never consciously think about the images they're subjected to.

Wouldn't it be a problem for the restaurant if people were contently sending food back or being disappointed by the product because it didn't look like the ad? I mean, the difference is striking! (see https://i.imgur.com/e9EaVbu.jpeg). If I genuinely expected the first burger in that image and got served the second one I'd demand my money back and maybe never step foot in that restaurant again! Wouldn't most people? It seems more likely to me that most people accept that the first burger is a fantasy.

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#76

Post by enriquto »

what is the difference to drawing him on a fictional painting? or edit a photo?

People who complain about that sound a bit like those mythical tribes that are afraid of photographs because they may rob their soul.

EDIT: i'm not sure that this is wrong, only confused

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#77

Post by porknubbins »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #12

Out 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…

That was the Sicily episode- Bourdain wanted to show the ugly, scammy underbelly of Sicily I think. This kind of thing is there in a lot of the Mediterranean, but it unfairly makes all of Sicily look bad. I had a bad impression of the whole island until I learned more about it years later. Sicily is mostly nice with a few pockets of unsavoriness like anywhere, not a mafia island. In my opinion too many episodes are like that- projection of a certain fantasy about a place while ostensibly engaging with the real authentic experience.

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#78

Post by andy_ppp »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #12

Out 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…

As I understand it (I read this on Twitter so massive grain of salt etc.) the family concented to this explicitly. Would you feel better if it was a voice actor who could read Bourdain’s email in a perfect mimic? What about historical recreations, would you object to computers being involved in, say, recreating Abraham Lincoln’s voice? Does the age of the subject matter?

I think the squeamishness about AI as it becomes more and more capable will be interesting to define why we are feeling it. The machine is going to be capable of (and consequently used to do) these things whether you like it or not.

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#79

Post by minsc__and__boo »

iandanforth wrote: post #43

This recently got worse, they claimed to have the OK from his widow. Turns out not so much ... https://twitter.com/OttaviaBourdain/status/14158894550057164...

They really need a way for someone to trademark their voice.

Re: Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions

#80

Post by briefcomment »

andy_ppp wrote: post #78
hellbannedguy wrote: post #12

Out 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…

As I understand it (I read this on Twitter so massive grain of salt etc.) the family concented to this explicitly. Would you feel better if it was a voice actor who could read Bourdain’s email in a perfect mimic? What about historical recreations, would you object to computers being involved in, say, recreating Abraham Lincoln’s voice? Does the age of the subject matter? I think the squeamishness about AI as it becom…

His widow did not provide consent [1].

[1] https://twitter.com/OttaviaBourdain/status/14158894550057164...

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