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Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

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Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#101
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The recently released XTTS-v2 model[0] from coqui.ai is coming very close to what ElevenLabs[1] can do. It runs reasonably fast on a recent GPU, and should also work on CPU. Requires a 3 second (!) clip of the voice you want to clone. License does not allow commercial use. 0: https://huggingface.co/coqui/XTTS-v2 1: https://elevenlabs.io/

> Requires a 3 second (!) clip of the voice you want to clone. Sure, if you want a guaranteed uncanny valley experience. There is no way a few seconds are enough to cover all the ways a specific person pronounces things. A person's voice is much more than just the pitch and with a 3 second sample anyone who knows them will be able to tell something's off within 3 seconds.

>anyone who knows them will be able to tell something's off within 3 seconds.

Unfortunately the targets of these scammers is usually senile old people. I'm incredibly worried about my parents, especially my bleeding heart mother.

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#102

Someone at work shared this and I thought it was hilarious and awesome. A number of other people found it disrespectful or gross. I'm sort of fascinated at the values divide. I can see why SAG/ASTRA, or voice actors, aren't going to like this technology, but it doesn't feel all that different to any other industry swept away by tech, whether that's farming, horses and carriages, mining, etc. In other words, I can see…

This demonstration is respectful. It’s funny. It’s obvious parody. But, the tech can be used to make disrespectful content. Look forward to: David Attenborough narrates porn. I don’t know what we can do. Ain’t no easy answers. But do we want courts and $Lawyers deciding what is respectful?

> Look forward to: David Attenborough narrates porn.

Here you go: https://youtu.be/kwAEVII8FRM?si=oF0Vu5Zgk7fUgvDz&t=491 (NSFW!)

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or Attenborough attributing the wonders of the planet to a god.

A great SaaS idea! It subtly injects "glory to the creator" type messages in existing science documentaries, for consumption by faith-based institutions.

Reminds me of "Cosmos for Rednecks":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1Q8PQLAhQ

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#104

When I see a lot of this voice replication I am reminded of something. (Dune series spoiler) For example, Duncan Idaho keeps being brought back with cloning tech, over and over, for centuries, because Leto II just likes him. Over and over, the same man keeps being put by the (nearly) immortal emperor's side... I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones?…

> I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones?

I really don't understand how you go from this story to that question. There are two, new, interesting things here:

1. The dev has made something which narrates their life. That's new and interesting

2. David Attenborough actually is still producing new (and amazing) nature documentaries. Planet Earth III has just come out and is astounding https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gjwxhv

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#105

When I see a lot of this voice replication I am reminded of something. (Dune series spoiler) For example, Duncan Idaho keeps being brought back with cloning tech, over and over, for centuries, because Leto II just likes him. Over and over, the same man keeps being put by the (nearly) immortal emperor's side... I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones?…

My thoughts about my memories - that "model" - is arguably realer than reality (this tapestry of sensations) to me.

And it only gets stronger as I accrue more memories.

Eventually, yes, it might dominate entirely. My whole life bent to reproducing an idealized past. I have become a possessed thing.

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it different than someone making a funny video where they impersonate David Attenborough? Those aren’t generally considered disrespectful, right? Like, I get the potential scale is different. But this is some joke video, not someone trying to actually replace David Attenborough or something.

I agree and the difference is commercial rights and intent. Parody, jokes, etc are fine. Using this to replace him on a documentary, not okay. Fair use already covers this all they have to do is extend copyright protections to peoples likeness and voices

> Using this to replace him on a documentary, not okay.

I think it's legal if you're the copyright holder, e.g. Disney putting dead actors in their movies did not need anybody's permission, nor does any derivative work such as videogames as they own the image right to the characters they play.

It would be interesting if they did a Planet Earth IV with Attenbrough's voice without his consent as David plays himself really...Not a fictional character.

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#107

When I see a lot of this voice replication I am reminded of something. (Dune series spoiler) For example, Duncan Idaho keeps being brought back with cloning tech, over and over, for centuries, because Leto II just likes him. Over and over, the same man keeps being put by the (nearly) immortal emperor's side... I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones?…

This reminds me of something I noticed: disproportionately, the classics in a given field (ie, the work agreed upon to be particularly important, influential, etc) are disproportionately the ones that were made shortly after a new medium or technique was invented. For example, It's almost as if we default to tending towards imitation and recycling, and only each time a totally new technology changes what is possible…

That seems just very obviously untrue. Take an example, say literature: Are you saying the classics of literature were produced shortly after the invention of the pen/paper (clearly untrue)? Or maybe after the invention of the printing press? (Also clearly untrue).

It seems like a banal observation to say when there is a technological breakthrough there are new discoveries made. Like say astronomy, every time we invent a new method to see further/measure better we discover new stuff. And equivalently in art as new media and methods are discovered, artists take advantage of them to produce new work. It's obvious both that this is the case and why that should be so.

Otherwise, we are clearly going to evaluate works that have stood the test of time to be "classics" and have difficulty making an objective evaluation in many fields of how new works stack up relative to them. History winnows out the things which aren't that great and then you have a new generation of classics that "by pure coincidence" (not really) are closer to when the new medium or technique than your time of observation.

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#108

When I see a lot of this voice replication I am reminded of something. (Dune series spoiler) For example, Duncan Idaho keeps being brought back with cloning tech, over and over, for centuries, because Leto II just likes him. Over and over, the same man keeps being put by the (nearly) immortal emperor's side... I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones?…

> I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It's such an interesting side effect of the streaming era that some of the biggest TV hits with teenagers are Friends and The Office. Not to knock either show but I'm fascinated by what it means for culture.

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that's true. Look at the printing press. Sure, Shakespeare is a classic, but most of the rest of what we read as "classics" probably centers around the mid-1800s (at least in English-speaking countries)

Yes, that's exactly some of the time periods I was thinking of. The mid 1800s was a time when literacy was rapidly increasing and new serial magazines became popular. This new medium paved the way for the fame of authors like Dickens and Bronte, the sort you may be thinking of.

You're cherry-picking to establish your conclusion. Lots of classic authors from that period (George Eliot for example) didn't serialise their works in magazines.

Also the 19th century is not by any means considered generally superior to any other period in English literary history. Eg Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are looking sternly in your direction from either side of that timeline for example.

Re: Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or Attenborough attributing the wonders of the planet to a god.

A great SaaS idea! It subtly injects "glory to the creator" type messages in existing science documentaries, for consumption by faith-based institutions.

The generalized kernel of your comment here leaves me deeply unsettled.

Imagine the following:

* AI discovers community's non-trivial shibboleths

* AI detects pauses in video stream where 1) the speaker is off camera and 2) there's space for a non-trivial shibboleth to be inserted

* Convert nearly all media from what it is into a lowkey propaganda piece where arbitrary community believes that their favorite celebrities are actually closet members of their community.

Example:

David Attenborough narrates a scene of ants using pheromones to encourage the colony that they need to dig out more tunnels. Then in a brief pause adds: "They must construct additional pylons."

Most people just glaze over the line, meanwhile starcraft players are having a different reaction.

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