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Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

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Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#131

Post by burkaman »

skybrian wrote: post #48
phkahler wrote: post #18

This is the first startup here where I think the tech should essentially be illegal. It's cool tech, yes I'm impressed at the achievement. Nuclear weapons are impressive too. OTOH this kind of thing is getting easier and easier to do, so what's a realistic way forward?

You may get your wish. The FTC posted an article about this a week ago. [1] > The FTC Act’s prohibition on deceptive or unfair conduct can apply if you make, sell, or use a tool that is effectively designed to deceive – even if that’s not its intended or sole purpose. It seems like an awfully broad rule? But they probably could go after this startup if they noticed it. There are some kinds of businesses where making…

Wow, this is a great article. Obviously writing is easier than enforcing, but I'm pretty impressed with whoever at the FTC is already thinking so clearly about this stuff.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#132

Post by devinprater »

Using a screen reader to browse the page, there are a few unlabeled buttons and links. After the "Load 7 new" button, there is an unlabeled button, followed by the time of the recording. If this doesn't sound better, I'll keep using 11Labs. That one is more accessible.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#134

Post by abirch »

Dowwie wrote: post #118

I recommend you immediately add identity verification (state-issued identification verification), set up appropriate secrets store for PII, and audit trail EVERYTHING your users are doing, storing the contents in a secure location. Yesterday. This service will be used to harm others, shortly. I do think that there are exciting, honest things that can be done with this service but you need to set up some friction for…

I'm imagining the legal implications though I'm not a lawyer. If granny gets ripped off by someone impersonating me with this site, seems like Granny could sue Play.ht.

Play.ht will want to have as much information as possible about their users.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#135

Post by burkaman »

andai wrote: post #116
burkaman wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess eventually people will go back to only meeting face to face for important communications. I don't know what the way forward is for news. I truly do not understand people like these founders, obviously they understand the future they're creating. "If not us, someone else would do it" is not an excuse. Neither is "I like money".

There's a book I've been waiting years for the audiobook to come out. Plenty of legitimate uses for this tech. Plenty of horrible ones too. It's the same with many technologies, no? I don't think outright banning it makes any sense.

Maybe there are legitimate uses, but that isn't one. There is no need for an audiobook narrator to sound like a real person, an AI narrator should be a realistic-sounding but completely fabricated voice.

Example: https://blog.elevenlabs.io/enter-the-new-year-with-a-bang/

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#136

Post by notafraudster »

manuelmoreale wrote: post #64
phkahler wrote: post #18

This is the first startup here where I think the tech should essentially be illegal. It's cool tech, yes I'm impressed at the achievement. Nuclear weapons are impressive too. OTOH this kind of thing is getting easier and easier to do, so what's a realistic way forward?

I'm with you on this. I can't honestly think a good use case for the average user to generate audio this way. Maybe some niche use case in like movie or tv production where you can generate a missing line without flying in an actor or something. Or maybe for generating dialogues for videogames. But those are business use cases, not things for the genral public.

My Dad died before my kids were born. When he got cancer, he recorded himself reading "The Night Before Christmas", which is about enough audio for the high quality version of this technology. Is it ghoulish on my part to want to hear his voice again or for my kids to hear it? Maybe. Do I really care what you think (or really what _I_ think) about that? No.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#137

Post by sroussey »

bitL wrote: post #45
burkaman wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess eventually people will go back to only meeting face to face for important communications. I don't know what the way forward is for news. I truly do not understand people like these founders, obviously they understand the future they're creating. "If not us, someone else would do it" is not an excuse. Neither is "I like money".

There are some cool uses like dubbing movies in foreign languages while keeping the original "voice styles" or having your long dead relatives talking to you in some memorabilia etc. It could also cause unexpected creativity explosion e.g. in games or fan fiction movies. To avoid misuses we might perhaps find the only good use of blockchain.

Foreign language dubbing is a great use case. And the ability to alter the video such the the lips are synced to the dubbed version would be a great addition. I can’t believe studios are using these things already (the video part in particular).

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#139

Post by jvalencia »

detrites wrote: post #97
phkahler wrote: post #18

This is the first startup here where I think the tech should essentially be illegal. It's cool tech, yes I'm impressed at the achievement. Nuclear weapons are impressive too. OTOH this kind of thing is getting easier and easier to do, so what's a realistic way forward?

It's amazing how many think declaring something illegal will stop criminally-minded people having and using it.

It won't stop it, but will allow enforcement agencies to enforce. Otherwise, they have no legal recourse to do so.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#140

Post by joshmn »

Playing with this now, wow.

My mom passed away a few years ago. I always let her calls go to my voicemail so I could have them. I was using Google Voice at the time so this worked wonderfully. Unfortunately, I will not listen to many of them — she was an alcoholic and I can't bear to listen to her while drunk. The few I have of her when she's sober I listen to occasionally.

Having said, this is really nice.

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