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Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

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Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#61

Post by diminikolaou »

mcpackieh wrote: post #52

How will you prevent your service from being used to flood the world with worthless algorithmically generated slop?

For the time being, realistically it’s cost prohibitive for users to generate slop without expectation for some return, so that’s a current natural mechanism.

As the prices decrease, due to model improvement, best/worst practice guides, and promotion of successful use cases may act as an additional mechanism to prevent such cases.

Realistically though, given that we’re lowering the bar of podcast creation to effectively the level of blog creation there might be an increase in slop content. I think that’s a necessary problem when you lower the barrier, but there will always be proper curation in the aggregator level. I think HM is the perfect example. Internet has made blogging so easy and there is so much slop. But it goes unnoticed given the curation.

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#62

Post by cca778 »

Recently I have produced some short video lectures to distributed to research partners. I can write reasonably well in english, but my speaking is terrible. I manage to prepare fine-tuned english subtitles.

A text-to-speech can help creating english audio tracks for those producing original content in other languages

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#63

Post by diminikolaou »

Kwpolska wrote: post #51

People like podcasts, because they are interesting stories told by humans. Good podcasts have a lot of creativity behind them. Your HN Recap podcast uses a bland voice that sometimes struggles with tech terms, and the auto-generated summaries often feature deep details and miss the intention of the story. Auto-generated content on YouTube is usually misleading spam, how will you prevent your auto-generated podcasts f…

In relation to HN Recap, I agree that it struggles with terms, but I’d argue that the results show that the stories are captured well.

I get your point on people liking authentic stories from people and that’s the value of podcasts. There’s many different formats of podcasts and interviews/conversations are just 20% of overall podcasts. I agree with you that for the time being those formats are best done person to person. But for all other podcasts (e.g news rundowns, narrations etc), podcasts generated on Wondercraft on a daily basis are proving that as long as human creativity is there podcasts created using TTS and other AI tools can be very engaging and appealing for many. That is ultimately how the flooding of such content is regulated as well, people will only listen to content that has thought behind it so creators will not find much value in “auto generated” podcasts.

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#64

Post by replwoacause »

diminikolaou wrote: post #34
RankingMember wrote: post #30

This is both brilliant and scary- I anticipate that the amount of web-scraped stuff about to land on Spotify's podcasts tab is going to be insane.

We're lowering the barrier to create a podcast so that might happen to an extent, but on the flip side, valued written content that has been confined in text format can now find its way to audio format. Paul Graham essays is a good example: https://app.wondercraft.ai/p/myqXnyUD

Did PG have to approve this? Or can you do it without his consent?

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#65

Post by diminikolaou »

cca778 wrote: post #62

Recently I have produced some short video lectures to distributed to research partners. I can write reasonably well in english, but my speaking is terrible. I manage to prepare fine-tuned english subtitles. A text-to-speech can help creating english audio tracks for those producing original content in other languages

Many educators use Wondercraft right now as it also generates video which helps students. Check out if can be helpful to you.

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#66

Post by mcpackieh »

diminikolaou wrote: post #61
mcpackieh wrote: post #52

How will you prevent your service from being used to flood the world with worthless algorithmically generated slop?

For the time being, realistically it’s cost prohibitive for users to generate slop without expectation for some return, so that’s a current natural mechanism. As the prices decrease, due to model improvement, best/worst practice guides, and promotion of successful use cases may act as an additional mechanism to prevent such cases. Realistically though, given that we’re lowering the bar of podcast creation to effectiv…

I think you should only offer this service to people who are willing to first record the podcast in their own voice. Then your service could provide utility by replacing their voice to cleaning up their audio, removing speech impediments (e.g. "uh uh um um um"), translating to other languages, editing in music, etc. Lots of people aren't good at reading/speaking so this service could be very useful to them, but you should make them prove the content is worth their own time by making them record at least a rough reading of the script themselves.

If the creator can't be bothered to read the script, it would be a waste of time for anybody else to listen to it.

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#67

Post by diminikolaou »

porkbeer wrote: post #60

Great, more robot voices. No thanks. The point of a podcast is the human part. I can just have gpt blather to me thru tts if i wanted fake podcasts. I regret saying this, but your tech will actively make the world worse.

Strong words, but I understand where you’re coming from. I get your point on people liking authentic stories from people and that’s the value of podcasts. There’s many different formats of podcasts and interviews/conversations are just 20% of overall podcasts. I agree with you that for the time being those formats are best done person to person. But for all other podcasts (e.g news rundowns, narrations etc), podcasts generated on Wondercraft on a daily basis are proving that as long as human creativity is there podcasts created using TTS and other AI tools can be very engaging and appealing for many.

There is so much written content currently confined in written format and we have built an app that makes it very easy to convert it to engaging audio. Paul Graham essays is a prime example.

If that necessarily means there is also some “fake” podcasts, that no one will listen to anyway, I think it’s a fair exchange.

So although I understand your position, no, we are by no means making the world worse.

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#68

Post by monological »

diminikolaou wrote: post #55
monological wrote: post #46

Podshorty does something kind of similar, but it takes any YouTube link, summarizes it and generates a podcast using the voices of the original speakers. Also creates transcripts so you can follow along. https://www.podshorty.com

This is copyright infringement, not ok to be using and monetising off of someone else’s voice. Over the next months there are plans for way tighter controls on this so I’d expect that the “using the voices of the original speakers” feature will not be available, unless a monetisation method is developed.

Actually, according to US law, it doesn't appear to be copyright infringement. Do you have anything to back up those claims?

According to Butler v. Target Corp., it was held that although lyrics to a song are copyrightable, the underlying voice is not. As such, there is no copyright protection available to the infinite number of words or phrases a person might utter in their distinctive voice.

Additionally, the synthesized audio can be considered derivative, as it transforms the the "audio" into something entirely different than original, and so falls under 17 U.S.C.A § 103.

So, I'm not sure what you mean when you say there are plans for tighter controls. Care to back that up?

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is my personal opinion.

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#69

Post by diminikolaou »

monological wrote: post #68
diminikolaou wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is copyright infringement, not ok to be using and monetising off of someone else’s voice. Over the next months there are plans for way tighter controls on this so I’d expect that the “using the voices of the original speakers” feature will not be available, unless a monetisation method is developed.

Actually, according to US law, it doesn't appear to be copyright infringement. Do you have anything to back up those claims? According to Butler v. Target Corp., it was held that although lyrics to a song are copyrightable, the underlying voice is not. As such, there is no copyright protection available to the infinite number of words or phrases a person might utter in their distinctive voice. Additionally, the synth…

Sorry what is exactly your claim here? That it is legal to use and monetise off of someone else's voice? Using Morgan Freeman's or Joe Rogan's voice for example to host your podcasts?

Re: Launch HN: Wondercraft (YC S22) – Use text-to-speech to create podcasts easily

#70

Post by diminikolaou »

replwoacause wrote: post #64
diminikolaou wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're lowering the barrier to create a podcast so that might happen to an extent, but on the flip side, valued written content that has been confined in text format can now find its way to audio format. Paul Graham essays is a good example: https://app.wondercraft.ai/p/myqXnyUD

Did PG have to approve this? Or can you do it without his consent?

PG has not approved for this to be done with his own voice, which is why we're using a custom voice (Anna).
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