I can think of a few applications of this technology, although some may fall into the deception category, albeit harmless in my view:
- overcoming social anxiety in voice or online calls. It doesn’t take very many bullying incidents during childhood to become convinced you have a horrible or weird voice. I can see this being used as a useful tool to make people feel more comfortable by having a different voice
- amateur interactive fiction development. Having your characters have a real voice in a game in response too the players commands is a real need, and being able to record it yourself and be a different character would be a huge enabler of creating something for a solo developer.
- internal HR videos/podcasts. Creating these can be very expensive, needing different persons reading out dialogue could significantly reduce the effort in recording and producing these
- another instrument for music creators. Auto tune is a very common tool for music production for all skill levels, and this could be applied in a very similar way
It no doubt can be used for disingenuous purposes, any technology can. But these can be real life improving tools enabling many people to do things they never thought possible.
The idea of participating in Q&A session in a webinar would be far too confronting and inconceivable for many people, but to be able to do it semi-anonymously with a different voice would eliminate much of the anxiety preventing them