Echoes of when Scarlett Johansson accused OpenAI of stealing her voice. That time it was impossible to tell who was in the right - there was no available recording of OpenAI's supposed Scarlett clone - they had pulled it immediately for fear of bad PR. Then came the completely nonsensical HN threads with people arguing about something they hadn't heard. Maybe don't redo that whole thing? Could we at least make sure t…
Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
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Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#42His voice doesn't sound that distinctive to me. He's going to have a hard time unless he can find some emails that say, use David Green's voice.
I think a lot of sport announcers sound the same. There might just be classes of voices where you expect a faceless voice in some scenario to sound a certain way.
In general, without any context, I doubt there are a lot of people you'd immediately recognize by their voice. When I was podcasting (and editing) there were certainly some people I would recognize but in general not so much.
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#43Echoes of when Scarlett Johansson accused OpenAI of stealing her voice. That time it was impossible to tell who was in the right - there was no available recording of OpenAI's supposed Scarlett clone - they had pulled it immediately for fear of bad PR. Then came the completely nonsensical HN threads with people arguing about something they hadn't heard. Maybe don't redo that whole thing? Could we at least make sure t…
https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1790072174117613963?s=20
That's not it. This is the first version of the Sky voice model which most people seem to agree doesn't sound that much like Scarlett.
See my adjacent comment for more details.
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#44His voice doesn't sound that distinctive to me. He's going to have a hard time unless he can find some emails that say, use David Green's voice.
He'll likely file in California or Federal and ask for Jury trial. I think a Jury will be sympathetic. I doubt Google will want this to go to a jury trial - not worth the risk, further news cycles of negative PR and impact on staff morale. NPR is credible and liked.
> Greene’s lawsuit, filed last month in Santa Clara County Superior Court, alleges but does not offer proof that Google trained NotebookLM on his voice.
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#45Compare for yourself. David Greene: https://youtu.be/xYxQrLp4MQk NotebookLM: https://youtu.be/AR4dRtzFvxM I think he just has "podcast guy" voice. It's pretty generic.
Probably an unpopular opinion on this forum where everyone is considering can something be done vs should something be done, but it sounds like theft to me. But I am also very anti-AI in the artistic space, because if it weren’t for humans freely providing so much artistic content, we wouldn’t have this outcome. And I believe the only end result will be less humans openly sharing knowledge, because some heavily money…
It's not theft, it's copying. Two different words, with two different meanings, and different legality, for very good reason. You can only steal things that can be taken away, which is why theft is bad, because it deprives the original owner of something they once had.
Copying does not directly deprive anyone of anything. In fact it just adds more value to the world, and makes it more available to more people.
Nobody can "copy" stuff and put it behind a paywall, because the original is still free. It's the prevention of copying that leads to expression being locked behind paywalls.
It's said that copying disincentivizes creativity and creation, but in practice it does the opposite. Just look at the incredible amount of music, fiction, software, stories, art, and information that have proliferated since the birth of the web.
What copying does do is it indirectly deprives people and companies of the ability monopolize profits on particular expressions without competition. But I'm not so sure that's a bad thing.
For example, look at the software industry. I'm extremely grateful that patents and copyright are so rarely enforced in software and UI design, and that we've all been copying the good ideas that came before us for decades with no consequence. I'm grateful the same is true of food recipes, too. I think the world would likely be a richer one if this was true for most fields and art.
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#46I listen to some Jupiter Broadcasting podcasts. The main host (Chris Fisher) regularly pops up in NotebookLLM content, with his voice. Sometimes it just jumps in, and then after some time out again. It’s usually a pretty perfect imitation, I can’t hear the difference . Edit, here an older piece, there have been many since: [0], it’s the 3rd voice that enters the NotebookLLM clip so it takes a minute before it comes i…
Yeah, I don't hear it. I kept listening waiting to hear the voice that was supposed to sound like him, and never did. Was it the first one (I heard three different voices during the clip)? That one is considerably deeper than the podcaster's voice, and has different tones, too. It definitely wasn't the last one, that one was much higher pitched (and then a female voice in the middle). Feels like a big stretch, to say…
And presumably anyone who has had vocal coaching for speech is going to sound somewhat similar to whatever is considered "normal" for where they live.
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#47Compare for yourself. David Greene: https://youtu.be/xYxQrLp4MQk NotebookLM: https://youtu.be/AR4dRtzFvxM I think he just has "podcast guy" voice. It's pretty generic.
I've listened to tens of hours of NotebookLM, and this doesn't even seem close. If someone had played his voice for me and asked if it sounded like any LLM/bot I was aware of, I would have said no. It would not have even occurred to me that they were thinking of NotebookLM.
As @crazygringo said, David's voice is lower. I think it might have some of the same harmonics, but it has some lower ones too, which make the overall sound come across as lower-pitched. I'm not using technical terminology here, so perhaps someone can jump in with the appropriate terms.
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#48Compare for yourself. David Greene: https://youtu.be/xYxQrLp4MQk NotebookLM: https://youtu.be/AR4dRtzFvxM I think he just has "podcast guy" voice. It's pretty generic.
I've listened to tens of hours of NotebookLM, and this doesn't even seem close. If someone had played his voice for me and asked if it sounded like any LLM/bot I was aware of, I would have said no. It would not have even occurred to me that they were thinking of NotebookLM. As @crazygringo said, David's voice is lower. I think it might have some of the same harmonics, but it has some lower ones too, which make the ov…
Probably it's what his voice sounds like to himself. Maybe he should listen to his own podcasts more.
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#49Compare for yourself. David Greene: https://youtu.be/xYxQrLp4MQk NotebookLM: https://youtu.be/AR4dRtzFvxM I think he just has "podcast guy" voice. It's pretty generic.
Congratulations. I hate both of them. Maybe I’m old but the podcast style of “there might be some interesting information here, but let me tease it for ages with a voice that makes you think something interesting is about to happen…” No sir, I don’t like it
Re: Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
#50Compare for yourself. David Greene: https://youtu.be/xYxQrLp4MQk NotebookLM: https://youtu.be/AR4dRtzFvxM I think he just has "podcast guy" voice. It's pretty generic.
Probably an unpopular opinion on this forum where everyone is considering can something be done vs should something be done, but it sounds like theft to me. But I am also very anti-AI in the artistic space, because if it weren’t for humans freely providing so much artistic content, we wouldn’t have this outcome. And I believe the only end result will be less humans openly sharing knowledge, because some heavily money…
Back in the day there were these Star Wars games. Now obviously Mark Hamill costs money and he wasn't going to come back for anything less than a Disney "offer you can't refuse" pay check.
So they got someone who could fake it pretty well.
Ofcourse fast forward in 2026 an actor automatically sells off their face, voice and soul when they sign a contract in perpuity.