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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#211

Post by JohnFen »

gus_massa wrote: post #112
JohnFen wrote: post #25

This is a good reminder that we all need to have a "safe word" that we can use to verify to the important people in our life that the voice they may be hearing on the phone or elsewhere is really us. Get a panicky call from "me" in the middle of the night? If I don't include my safe word, that call isn't from me.

That scam was popular here in Argentina a few years ago. We call it "virtual kidnaping" https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/virtual-kidnapping , nobody is kidnaped, it's just a scam using a phone call. It's not very important that the voice is similar to the supposed victim. Usually the person in the call is weeping and it's very difficult to recognize the voice. Moreover a confusing voice at 2am may be interpreted as a…

Some scammers tried to pull this scam off on my stepfather years ago. He got a call that, through the wailing and tears, told him that I'd been thrown into a Mexican prison and needed bail money immediately.

He was 90% convinced that it was true, but my mother made him call me before doing anything, which saved him about $10k. She thought it was suspicious that I would have left the country without mentioning it to her.

If the person he was talking to was relatively calm and sounded like me, it might have been successful.

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

#213

Post by zanderwohl »

jascii wrote: post #53

I'm having a hard time coming up with a non-nefarious use case for this.

I am toying about with building a virtual puppet software in the style of watchmeforever. I have a number of voices I do for the stage and DnD that I would be willing to train a few models on so I could give my puppets unique voices.

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

#214

Post by bitL »

burkaman wrote: post #169
sroussey wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About the blockchain comment… For years, I’ve been expecting camera makers (including phone makers) to offer image hash verification on blockchain at the moment of image capture. I’m surprised it’s not routine.

1. Expensive 2. Requires internet 3. What image do you verify? Between auto-retouching, manual retouching, compression, filetype conversion, an image file might be invisibly transformed 10 times in between capture and Instagram upload. 4. Useless for disproving fake images until every camera manufacturer in the world has implemented this. 5. Hostile to customers, now your picture doesn't get the green verified badge…

Ad 3) all of them. They will be recorded in a cryptographically recorded chain and you'll be able to backtrack all steps.

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

#215

Post by alcover »

burkaman wrote: post #23
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 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".

> face to face for important communications

Funny how computing perfected communication and ultimately will undermine itself.

> I don't know what the way forward is for news.

I'd say every packet of voice/img will have to be signed by the recording device and checked at rendering time.

> I truly do not understand people like these founders

Me neither. Don't do it. We don't need that, and the malevolent use of this will confuse people to an extreme point.

Even the 'good' use of having a deceased relative utter new sentences is beyond strange. This is too far gone. And I'm no luddite.

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

#217

Post by gamblor956 »

buu700 wrote: post #124
jeroenhd wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider studios taking voice actors' voices and using them to generate new content beyond their contract to be abuse. I'm sure big corporations are rubbing their hands in anticipation, but I'm sure killing the VA industry will make the world just a tiny bit worse for everyone else. Mods are more difficult to attach a moral judgement to. I don't think I'd really consider them malicious, as long as they're not…

On the other hand, why shouldn't voice actors benefit from this tech? I can easily imagine a future where AI-generated impersonations are deemed by courts or new legislation to be protected by personality rights. In that world, voice actors could expand their business by offering deeply discounted rates for AI-generated work. Alternatively, if/when tech like Play.ht is consistently good enough, maybe it just becomes…

I'm sure programmers would love to expand their business opportunities by offering deeply discounted rates for creating AI-generated code.

No? Then why do you assume that someone else would want to do the same in their profession?

As AI-generated content is not protectable under IP law, it's a non-starter for games, film, TV, or music for anything except background filler.

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

#218

Post by marak830 »

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…

(apologies for going off topic here)

Wow. I would have imagined an article from the FTC to be more... Bland, for want of a better term.

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