Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by daniellarusso » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:08 AM UTC

slg wrote: post #104

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…

>Out of all the celebrities, Bourdain would have viscerally despised this. I would just like to point out the irony in this comment. You're speaking on behalf of a dead person in objection to someone else speaking on behalf of that person. We can debate the ethics of this whole thing without trying to lay claim to what Bourdain would have thought.

Parent was not pretending to be said dead person, though.

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

#122

Post by daniellarusso » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:10 AM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #120

virtue3 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historical recreations are fine. Creating a digital voice model of abraham lincoln and then using it for ??? is not. All of this is being done for profit means (the orville redenbacher, fast furious, star wars). Just because we can doesn't mean we shouldn't stop and think if we should.

Just about every Presidents’ Day I’ll hear car deals with voice actors pretending to be Clinton or Bush and also on TV people dressed up as Lincoln… so I dunno.

If car salespeople do it, it should be fine. Is that the bar?

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

#123

Post by s1artibartfast » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:11 AM UTC

slg wrote: post #104

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…

>Out of all the celebrities, Bourdain would have viscerally despised this. I would just like to point out the irony in this comment. You're speaking on behalf of a dead person in objection to someone else speaking on behalf of that person. We can debate the ethics of this whole thing without trying to lay claim to what Bourdain would have thought.

>You're speaking on behalf of a dead person in objection to someone else speaking on behalf of that person.

The objection isn't to speaking on the behalf of the dead, it is to using phoney tactics to do so, playing them up for emotional value

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

#124

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:19 AM UTC

daniellarusso wrote: post #122

mc32 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just about every Presidents’ Day I’ll hear car deals with voice actors pretending to be Clinton or Bush and also on TV people dressed up as Lincoln… so I dunno.

If car salespeople do it, it should be fine. Is that the bar?

[deleted]

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

#125

Post by satori99 » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:22 AM UTC

somehnacct3757 wrote: post #11

They probably knew some people wouldn't like it, which is exactly why they used it, because look at all the free publicity they're getting now.

I think this is likely the reason it was done too.

The snide remarks from the documentary maker; “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.” make it seem like he is trying to get a fire burning around this.

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

#126

Post by Natsu » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:23 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #69

ethbr0 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should message @echelon on HN. ;) https://vo.codes/

Oh hi! I've had a new version of this in the works for a few months. It'll launch maybe this weekend? It supports user-trained data sets, which should be pretty neat. Your approach sounds kind of like unit selection or vocaloid. Do it!! :)

I'm honestly surprised that virtual celebs haven't taken over more. They could replace people in a lot of roles like newscasters and such.

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

#127

Post by aaron695 » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

Interesting we are talking about this now and not when the commercial production "Sassy Justice" came out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WfZuNceFDM

Arguably Sassy Justice is worse, Donald Trump is alive, and I don't think Sassy Justice was an attack, but it wan't flattering either. Sassy Justice was not audio, somewhat clear satire but no warnings.

It reminds me when Boko Haram kidnapped the 200 Chibok schoolgirls, they killed and kidnapped 1000's of school boys first. You don't have to like Trump or care about boys but it can come back to bite you.

I just hope synthetic media in docos is pointing out to people doco's aren't the truth tellers people think they are. They are entertainment not purveyors of truth.

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

#128

Post by colechristensen » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:41 AM UTC

We're running up towards "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." and it is appropriate.

It isn't wrong to replace a human with a machine, I'm not going after calculators, spreadsheets, or farm machinery.

What is to come though is a moral imperative that making machines mimic people is deeply wrong.

Our worldviews, values, and judgements are based on interacting with other humans and to have that set of long-tuned intelligence modeling of minds around us subverted by a computer model will bring out strong objections and eventually violence.

The science fiction writers had it wrong, the first conflict with machines isn't going to happen with an advanced artificial intelligence, it is going to be against naive misbehavior and trickery much like this, especially when the artifice comes into the real world (first iteration: self-driving cars). Semi-religious anti-machine fanatics will be the first wave with terrorist style attacks on machines ... that is if the sane moderates don't do enough to rein in the coming of the artificials first. Wait for a smoking gun event like a car driving itself into a gathering of schoolchildren to get things started.

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

#129

Post by s1artibartfast » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:44 AM UTC

37r7dyysy wrote: post #87

godelski wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What makes those considerations significant enough to be worth the effort of evaluating though? It's too late to stop the tech from existing, there's no individuals actually being harmed, and even if you find a framework for arguing harm that's compelling the end-game is just going to be updated contracts which demand rights to use the performer's likeness for these sorts of purposes. The dialogue just seems like a l…

I think that is a fair question to ask but I don't agree with your conclusions.

You are essentially asking why bother investigating and forming opinions and value judgements on the the use of new technology. Humans use opinions and values to decide how they want to interact with the outside world. Even if the technology exists and no living are harmed, people can find it distasteful. people can decide not to support what they find distasteful. They can decide to voice support actors unions if the issue ever comes up. They can tell their friends and family how they would like their likeness used as these technologies become more prevalent.

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

#130

Post by cmrdporcupine » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:51 AM UTC

Very unfortunate. They could easily have done something which I think would have been more touching like have his friends, family, or lovers read the text, instead. I haven't seen the documentary (not sure I will now), but I feel like that would have been more emotive.