Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 471 posts

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

#151

Post by detrites »

krashidov wrote: post #95
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?

Serious question. What is the difference in implications between this and a professional voice impersonator? I don't think it's as dangerous as we think it is. All of the consequences that Play.ht bring to society are already possible today and have been for some time. The difference is that it will be easier, but I don't think that makes it any more dangerous.

Two differences I can think of, either side the debate:

1) The impersonation can be carried out in real-time by the criminal themselves. No need to employ anyone else. (No trail leading to them.)

2) Pro impersonators aren't common in society. They are limited as an asset and not duplicatable. So, using one cannot spread like wildfire and overwhelm our awareness that voice impersonation is something of a common risk.

Maybe the second could hold the first in check. I think disruptive tech like this & similar advances in visuals come with a societal impact that lessens potentials for realising the bigger fears. But people just love fears.

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

#152

Post by jameshiew »

hammadh wrote: post #100
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #17

https://play.ht/app/voice-cloning > Clone a voice now Pops a modal: Try Voice Cloning for Free! Enter a credit card for $0.00/mo with no other information on screen Bounce. Why not let me play around with it a little without asking for a credit card?

It's an effort to prevent abuse. We previously asked users to pay upfront but most people want to try it out first.

I would mention something to that effect in the modal because it wasn't clear to me why it was asking for card details at that point for "$0.00/mo" (though I guessed the reason). Maybe something like "To prevent abuse, we require card details, but you won't be charged", but worded better.

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

#154

Post by fortyseven »

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?

> This is the first startup here where I think the tech should essentially be illegal.

Yes, I agree, only criminals should be allowed to freely run it.

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

#155

Post by kossTKR »

notafraudster wrote: post #136
manuelmoreale wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It doesn't really sound healthy to generate content of loved ones.

Yes in a few years you would be able to generate a complete avatar of someone, but it isn't them, and i think it will mess with you mentally.

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

#156

Post by atentaten »

sva_ wrote: post #129
atentaten wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generating audio for an audio book: If an author could speak for 20 minutes and then generate audio for an entire book from the book's text and the model, I think that would be very useful.

20 seconds*

The OP mentioned that for so called, "High-fidelity voice cloning", it would take 20 minutes of training. I think a book author would want the best quality possible to reproduce their voice.

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

#157

Post by skrebbel »

icemelt8 wrote: post #51
skrebbel wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nice voting ring you got there

Are the founder's names causing you panic? can't you appreciate a good startup?

I had to re-read your comment four times before I even understood what you were on about.

I'm mildly agitated by your comment, so I'd like to take the liberty of pointing out that you are the only one in this entire thread linking the names Hammad and Mahmoud to racism. Everybody else in the entire thread is talking about the product on its merits. There's a heated debate and nobody gives a fuck about where the founders are from. That's how it should be. Stop making the world a worse place than you found it.

And, FWIW, I think that the product looks pretty neat. And that the voting ring was just too obvious a play :-)

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

#158

Post by kirkbackus »

arroz wrote: post #109
rockemsockem wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm honestly a bit baffled at the lack of thought here. Anything written can be listened to with this tech. Any news article, any short story, a draft of a piece of writing you're working on. There is too much text for human beings to read it all. Translating from one medium to another is extremely useful.

Stop being lazy It is faster to read than to listen to something

Not for everybody, also it would be great to consume textual content in a variety of voices, or even my own.

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

#159

Post by hammadh »

abirch wrote: post #134
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.

You are right, and unfortunately that is a possibility, and we are working on having measure in place to guard against such attempts. We have auto moderation on the input text that will block such audio being generated. Such users are flagged in the system.
Post reply on HN