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StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

research.google

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Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#21

Post by kaliqt »

refulgentis wrote: post #14
modeless wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a very good demo page. It's difficult to judge real world quality with such unenthusiastic reading, unrealistic sentences, and unfamiliar voices. Typical of speech papers. It would be much better if celebrities were used as target voices, as we all know what they sound like and can therefore judge quality better. But I suppose that would be too controversial for Google. In general I think it is silly that voice c…

> But I suppose that would be too controversial for Google. You don't have to suppose anything: it is actually settled law that its bad to just willy-nilly use people's voices if you feel like it, even if its just a sound-alike!

Sound-alike is not actionable, and anyone who claims it infringes should be dragged through the courts.

Not your voice, not your IP, not your right.

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#22

Post by neilk »

What are the anticipated use cases?

I know of one: transgender people often would like to alter the timbre of their voice and spend a lot of time training their voice. At least for online scenarios, this can just do it.

But other than that AI voice altering research seems like it benefits mostly scammers? I’m just wondering what they tell themselves they’re doing. I didn’t see this in the paper.

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#23

Post by pgt »

neilk wrote: post #22

What are the anticipated use cases? I know of one: transgender people often would like to alter the timbre of their voice and spend a lot of time training their voice. At least for online scenarios, this can just do it. But other than that AI voice altering research seems like it benefits mostly scammers? I’m just wondering what they tell themselves they’re doing. I didn’t see this in the paper.

From the abstract: "making it applicable to real-time communication scenarios like calls and video conferencing, and addressing use cases such as voice anonymization in these scenarios."

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#24

Post by manishsharan »

Are there any use cases that is driving this ? Is there a huge burning need for technology ?

Are kidnappers and con-men a huge under-served market that Google is hoping to serve ? Deep Fake videos not convincing enough to serve the need of fraudsters ?

I am totally against regulating AI but shit like this gives fodder to the other side.

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#25

Post by thinkski »

neilk wrote: post #22

What are the anticipated use cases? I know of one: transgender people often would like to alter the timbre of their voice and spend a lot of time training their voice. At least for online scenarios, this can just do it. But other than that AI voice altering research seems like it benefits mostly scammers? I’m just wondering what they tell themselves they’re doing. I didn’t see this in the paper.

I suspect one is masking that a call center is in a low wage country, e.g. make customer in U.S. believe they’re talking to someone in U.S. while paying a fraction of the U.S. wage.

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#26

Post by webappguy »

neilk wrote: post #22

What are the anticipated use cases? I know of one: transgender people often would like to alter the timbre of their voice and spend a lot of time training their voice. At least for online scenarios, this can just do it. But other than that AI voice altering research seems like it benefits mostly scammers? I’m just wondering what they tell themselves they’re doing. I didn’t see this in the paper.

RFK Jr.

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#27

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

neilk wrote: post #22

What are the anticipated use cases? I know of one: transgender people often would like to alter the timbre of their voice and spend a lot of time training their voice. At least for online scenarios, this can just do it. But other than that AI voice altering research seems like it benefits mostly scammers? I’m just wondering what they tell themselves they’re doing. I didn’t see this in the paper.

I suspect that fraudsters will love this tool.

I really believe that we are entering a "golden age" of fraud. It will be crazy.

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#28

Post by leobg »

manishsharan wrote: post #24

Are there any use cases that is driving this ? Is there a huge burning need for technology ? Are kidnappers and con-men a huge under-served market that Google is hoping to serve ? Deep Fake videos not convincing enough to serve the need of fraudsters ? I am totally against regulating AI but shit like this gives fodder to the other side.

> applicable to real-time communication scenarios like calls and video conferencing, and addressing use cases such as voice anonymization in these scenarios.

It’s not a desire I ever had. But maybe people are different?

Alternatively, building the solution was so much fun that the question of whether this is a problem that should be solved was never asked.

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#29

Post by numpad0 »

neilk wrote: post #22

What are the anticipated use cases? I know of one: transgender people often would like to alter the timbre of their voice and spend a lot of time training their voice. At least for online scenarios, this can just do it. But other than that AI voice altering research seems like it benefits mostly scammers? I’m just wondering what they tell themselves they’re doing. I didn’t see this in the paper.

so there are regions and societies where the former of those use cases is massively more common than the latter, and then there are also...

Re: StreamVC: Real-Time Low-Latency Voice Conversion

#30

Post by Ukv »

manishsharan wrote: post #24

Are there any use cases that is driving this ? Is there a huge burning need for technology ? Are kidnappers and con-men a huge under-served market that Google is hoping to serve ? Deep Fake videos not convincing enough to serve the need of fraudsters ? I am totally against regulating AI but shit like this gives fodder to the other side.

Voice anonymization is the use-case mentioned by the paper. If you're recording a video or communicating online, having this over your voice would benefit privacy by avoiding revealing your real voice that can be matched back to your face/name/job/etc. I think a lot of people are currently reluctant to use their voice at all online for privacy reasons, resorting to only text.

Also allows people uncomfortable with their natural voice, in particular transgender people, to communicate closer to how they wish to be perceived. Or even for someone to use their own natural voice from previous recordings if some temporary or chronic disease/disorder has impaired it.

There are probably a bunch of creative applications - like doing character voices for a D&D session or reading an audiobook. Obviously depends on the preferences of those involved, and many will currently dislike it on the basis of it being AI, but I think over time we'll see the tech integrated in interesting ways.

I imagine the majority of the use will be in entertainment/memes/satire - joining a call with an amusing voice on, or the equivalent of Snapchat's face filters. Not something critical that we couldn't do without, but still a fun application.

I don't see much benefit to kidnappers in this; if you just need to send an anonymous message without much concern about flow and latency, text or traditional TTS is fine.

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