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Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

illuminate.google.com

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Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#161

Post by jmcmaster »

panarky wrote: post #78
culi wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not a podcast, but I've often wished I could listen to a paper or an article while on a long drive

A great way to learn something is to listen to a conversation among two to four well informed and articulate people, where each person has a memorable personality and each person has a different perspective about the topic. This Google Illuminate experiment shows how just listening to two voices discuss a technical paper for three minutes is far more effective than reading a three-minute AI summary of the paper. Imag…

I have a nonfiction draft built on conversations between 4 friends. Started as a regular nonfiction book but quickly realized the desired mainstreet audience would never read it. I created personas (as in UX style goal-directed design personas) to describe each character’s background, POV, goals, expertise, values, concerns and questions. Different than anything else I’ve ever written. Still very rough but rewarding.

Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#163

Post by theage »

The choice of intonement even mimics creatives which I'm sure they'll love. The vocal fry, talking through a forced smile, bumbling host is so typical. Only, no one minds demanding better from a robot so it's even more excruciating fluff with no possible parasocial angle.

Limiting choice to frivolous voices is really testing the waters for how people will respond to fully acted voice gen from them, they want that trust from the creative guild first. But for users who run into this rigid stuff it's going to be like fake generated grandma pics in your google recipe modals.

Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#164

Post by givemeethekeys »

keyle wrote: post #154

I listen to 5 mins of this and all I can feel is sadness and how cringe it is. Please do not replace humanity with a faint imitation of what makes use human, actual spontaneity. If you produce AI content, don't emulate small talk and quirky side jabs. It's pathetic. This is just more hot garbage on top of a pile of junk. I imagine a brighter future where we can choose to turn that off and remove it from search, like…

I think they've set it up to sound like NPR meets patronizing customer support agent. They could easily set it up to sound exactly the way you / any listener would like to hear their podcasts.

But yeah - like electronic instruments, AI will take away the blue collar creative jobs, leaving behind a lot more noise and an even greater economic imbalance.

Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#165

Post by TranquilMarmot »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #75
TranquilMarmot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you listen to an auto-generated podcast? Seems like removing the humans from the equation kind of defeats the purpose.

Lots of people follow bots on Instagram and Twitter, etc. Why not follow bots on YouTube and Spotify?

Your attention is your only real resource that you have to give online... giving it to bots on Instagram and Twitter is fairly "low attention" where you give the bot a few seconds of interaction. On YouTube or Spotify you're giving MUCH more attention, on the order of hours.

I wonder about a future where our attention isn't even spent on other people anymore. It's not really an online landscape I would be interested in.

Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#166

Post by maxglute »

AI voices sound particularly good at higher playback rates, with silence removal. Which is granted is an acquired taste, but common feature for podcast players so there's audience for it. Fast talkers feel more competent and one kind of stops interrogating on quality of speech.

Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#168

Post by TranquilMarmot »

dredmorbius wrote: post #125
TranquilMarmot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you listen to an auto-generated podcast? Seems like removing the humans from the equation kind of defeats the purpose.

I listen to a number of podcasts which are reading books, stories, literature, etc. Having a professional actor read a text has appeal (e.g., Selected Shorts ), but many are less-than-professional. A sufficiently-competent automated text-to-speech would fit at least some roles. There are a few podcasts for which I'd have greater interest if the narration were by someone other than the current host.... There are also…

Those are some good use cases. I only really listen to full-length audiobooks and not podcasts. An AI voice is probably sufficient, especially for niche content, but I would MUCH rather listen to a book narrated by a human. There are nuances to pacing, tone, and voice that I don't think AI will ever be able to fully grasp.

Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#169

Post by TranquilMarmot »

tjr wrote: post #73
TranquilMarmot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you listen to an auto-generated podcast? Seems like removing the humans from the equation kind of defeats the purpose.

I would be interested in seeing an AI developed to listen to auto-generated podcasts, removing humans from the equation altogether.

Then you can have an AI listen to those podcasts, even removing yourself! We'll all finally be free from being online.

Re: Google Illuminate: Books and papers turned into audio

#170

Post by TranquilMarmot »

tiltowait wrote: post #60
ertgbnm wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the what you are trying to get out of a podcast. Most of the podcasts I listen to are because I want to learn something new in an entertaining format. I'm not listening to develop parasocial relationships with the hosts, so removing that element could be a good thing for me. Of course if you listen to podcasts because you like the parasocial aspect or the celebrity interviews, then yeah... Not really a poi…

IMO, a lot of the best podcast content comes from a spontaneous tangent. You’d lose those moments with autogenerated podcasts.

Yeah, I think it depends on if the podcast is more conversational or scripted.
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