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Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

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Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#101

Post by hereonout2 »

jofzar wrote: post #98
hereonout2 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an interesting take, and I'd guess that the training data for this probably did use podcasts as a source. Getting very realistic / real world conversational training data for an ai would be hard. Only a subset of us appear on podcasts, radio or tv and probably all speak in a slightly artificial manner when we do.

I agree, I thinks it's probably very easy to find billions of hours of conversation on YouTube, but non of it is set to training data with a good transcript.

Yep! it's public dialogue, intended for an audience with a prepared topic, etc. Or it's actors imitating private dialogue, but again shaping it towards an audience.

AI agents like this are trying to recreate personal intimacy I guess, which does feel like it might be different somehow.

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#102

Post by gorgoiler »

wongarsu wrote: post #85
gorgoiler wrote: post #73

I would say most command and control voice interactions are going to be like buying a coffee — the parameters of the transaction are well known, so it’s just about fine tuning the match between what the user wants and what the robot has to do. A small minority of these interactions are going to be like a restaurant server — chit chat, pleasantries, some information gathering, followed by issuing direct orders. The tr…

The most immediate application for this might be in replacing call centers in various roles. And most of those are very conversational. For example tech support is in large parts about making the caller feel heard and getting them to do trouble shooting steps without feeling stupid. Sales is in large parts about getting the right person to talk to you and to keep them talking to you.

That's a good point, and one that aligns with scenarios where I don't know what I want (traditional search, or research) or don't know why something has happened (calling a contact center to debug a business issue). I'm sure the implementations of these tools will be able to figure out, from my tone and language, whether I do or do not want to be asked about the weather while unblocking my credit card.

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#103

Post by pjc50 »

wongarsu wrote: post #85
gorgoiler wrote: post #73

I would say most command and control voice interactions are going to be like buying a coffee — the parameters of the transaction are well known, so it’s just about fine tuning the match between what the user wants and what the robot has to do. A small minority of these interactions are going to be like a restaurant server — chit chat, pleasantries, some information gathering, followed by issuing direct orders. The tr…

The most immediate application for this might be in replacing call centers in various roles. And most of those are very conversational. For example tech support is in large parts about making the caller feel heard and getting them to do trouble shooting steps without feeling stupid. Sales is in large parts about getting the right person to talk to you and to keep them talking to you.

As is fake tech support.

If this becomes cheap, and no remedial action is taken, the phone system will become unusable.

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#104

Post by martingoodson »

I played with this last night with my four-year old daughter. We had fun with asking Miles to explain what bones are made of etc.

Today, she asked "where has that robot guy gone?". Crying now because I won't let her talk to Miles anymore.

She has already developed an emotional connection to it. Worrying indeed.

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#105

Post by spyder »

Seems similar to that Moshi model from 6 months ago, but this is more refined than that, Moshi is a little crazy, but still it was an impressive demo of how low latency responses, continuous listening and interruptions can improve the voice chat and make it more real or uncanny, (sometimes its "latency" is even too low because is interrupts you before you finish) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XoEQ6oqlbE

They even released some models on huggingface:

https://huggingface.co/collections/kyutai/moshi-v01-release-...

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#106

Post by wewewedxfgdf »

martingoodson wrote: post #104

I played with this last night with my four-year old daughter. We had fun with asking Miles to explain what bones are made of etc. Today, she asked "where has that robot guy gone?". Crying now because I won't let her talk to Miles anymore. She has already developed an emotional connection to it. Worrying indeed.

You should put a raspberry pi in a toy monkey and connect it up.

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#107

Post by wewewedxfgdf »

bradley13 wrote: post #38

Maybe I'm weird, but I have zero desire to talk with an AI model. I use them a lot, in a browser or a console. But talking? No. Just...no. Why would I?

Because when you are driving it would be good to say "Siri get me the directions to the nearest ATM" and have it actually understand you.

Stuff that a trillion dollar company cannot manage to do.

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#108

Post by mentalgear »

While impressive, the paramount question stands: Why do we even need "emotional" voices?

All that emotionality adds is that you get the illusion of a friend - a friend that can't help you in any way in the real world and who's confidentiality is as strong as the privacy policies & data security of the company running it - which often ultimately trends towards 0.

Smart Neutral Voice Assistants could be a great help, but none of it requires "emotionality" and trying to build a "human connection" with the user. Quite the contrary: the more emotional a voice, the easier it is to misuse it for scams, faking rapport and in general make you "addicted" to loop you in babble with it.

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#109

Post by darkerside »

thekevan wrote: post #10

It's good, but it still sounds fake to me, but in a different way. The voice itself sounds like a human, undoubtedly. But the cadence and the rhythm of speaking are off. It sounds like someone who isn't a podcaster trying to speak in the personality of a podcaster. It just sounds like someone trying too hard and speaking in an unnatural way.

People have a performative mode and an authentic mode (oversimplifying), probably including you. If you're at home talking to your parents or spouse, and then suddenly realize your boss is in the next room listening, does your voice change?

Point being, this demo voice is in performative mode, and I think sounds fairly natural based on that. Would you rather it not?

Re: Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice

#110

Post by youssefabdelm »

akie wrote: post #70
thekevan wrote: post #10

It's good, but it still sounds fake to me, but in a different way. The voice itself sounds like a human, undoubtedly. But the cadence and the rhythm of speaking are off. It sounds like someone who isn't a podcaster trying to speak in the personality of a podcaster. It just sounds like someone trying too hard and speaking in an unnatural way.

I also think it didn't feel very "real". Trying too hard to sound upbeat and too eager to please, maybe it's just me being European but it makes me go "ewww, that's not how normal people speak".

Yeah the eagerness to please thing feels like it carried over from the LLMs or something cause they're like that too.
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