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How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

openai.com

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Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#21

Post by echelon »

genericacct wrote: post #8
datahack wrote: post #6

Am I the only one that really dislikes these overly perky voices? And the one they used for the demo was GOD AWFUL. If this is what the future sounds like… idk. I was hoping for a calm, neutral and not eager assistant with a little class. A little Jarvis maybe? Something calm and easy on the ears. These all sounded to me like people auditioning for a role in film and television or something.

You're not alone. But it should be an easy fix with voice cloning proceeding as fast as it is.

OpenAI won't be setting the mood once open source catches up. They have no moat. This is just another flashy demo attempting to throw shade at Google.

There were already AI products with exactly this behavior (perhaps sans multi-modality) prior to OpenAI's demo. Some of them were even open source. And these products will cater to the things we care about: local, niche, privacy-respecting, with bespoke domain expertise.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#22

Post by lstamour »

riffraff wrote: post #17
iamflimflam1 wrote: post #2

Article doesn’t address the ridiculously giggly female voice they used for the 4o demos.

Desi Lydic on the Daily Show had a perfect take on this https://www.youtube.com/shorts/51ucQ4s7Crc

The full episode is even better, the clip above ends a minute early...

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#23

Post by arianvanp »

msoad wrote: post #3

Berlin famously casted a gender neutral voice for public transport announcements. It would be nice if OpenAI would have done that too. At least for one of the options. Computers better not have genders imo

https://www.tiktok.com/@openlynews/video/7260846856228326682...

If you're interested in her voice

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#24

Post by dkersten »

isoprophlex wrote: post #4
iamflimflam1 wrote: post #2

Article doesn’t address the ridiculously giggly female voice they used for the 4o demos.

Fake, americanized, subtly sexualized. I'm pretty sad that they went for the lowest common denominator approach. I'm not opposed to computers using emotion at all, mind you. But I don't like that arguably the AI company furthest ahead is choosing this gaudy hollywood approach to marketing.

The male voice they used didn’t have these qualities…

I personally hated the female voice, it wasn’t pleasant to listen to. I found it quite grating, making the demo hard to watch.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#25

Post by nacnud »

As a British person, I find all the current OpenAI voices have overly strong (American) accents, which are way too perky/enthusiastic for my ears. It would be great if they could offer a more neutral accent, or even one British accent? (Example: Voice 5 from pi.ai is excellent, IMHO)

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#26

Post by thomashop »

AnonymousPlanet wrote: post #13
msoad wrote: post #3

Berlin famously casted a gender neutral voice for public transport announcements. It would be nice if OpenAI would have done that too. At least for one of the options. Computers better not have genders imo

I wouldn't be surprised if the person voicing those announcements would be more happy to be called female than gender neutral.

She's trans, so probably yes. But in an interview she says she is very happy to having been chosen as the gender-neutral voice of Berlin's subway.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#27

Post by input_sh »

I can't help but read this as:

> 400 people did some unpaid work for us, only 5 of which eventually got paid, after 5 months of not knowing will they or won't they.

Fair enough, that's how things work for other voice acting jobs as well, I just doubt it usually takes almost half a year. I wonder how many of the shortlisted 14 have just given up somewhere along the way.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#28

Post by GaggiX »

msoad wrote: post #3

Berlin famously casted a gender neutral voice for public transport announcements. It would be nice if OpenAI would have done that too. At least for one of the options. Computers better not have genders imo

What is a gender neutral voice? Something that is interpolated between a male and a female voice?

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#30

Post by GaggiX »

thomashop wrote: post #15
iLoveOncall wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Because assigning genders to computers makes as much sense as giving your toaster a name, it’s 2024, so why not keep the gender out of it? The why question is easily answered if you see how many negative reactions their choice of voice caused. A gender-neutral voice would have just avoided annoying a certain percentage of the population, including me. I'm happy if advertising stops hitting the sexy/cliched stereotype…

>The why question is easily answered if you see how many negative reactions their choice of voice caused.

To be honest, this HN thread was the first time I saw someone complaining about male and female voices in ChatGPT.

>A gender-neutral voice would have just avoided annoying a certain percentage of the population, including me.

The voice actors and actresses hired by OpenAI use their natural voices for training, I don't understand how that could be annoying to anyone, is the problem that they didn't hire a trans person (I imagine they have a more neutral voice)?

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